Cartel Cases and News

Below are links to cartel cases and a selection of news items related to cartels. The information is as at December 2011.

Australian cartel cases as at December 2011

Cartel news as at December 2011

  • On 13 October 2011 the Commerce Minister Simon Power introduced a bill into the New Zealand Parliament that provides criminal sanctions for hard-core cartel conduct. You can read the Minister's press release here. You can find more information and a link to the bill and other background materials here.
  • The report of the Working Party on Criminal Penalties for Cartel Behaviour (2004) has been released to Brent Fisse pursuant to a freedom of information request. The report is reproduced here in full with copyright permission from the Commonwealth. This was the second request made by Professor Fisse, the first having been refused on grounds inter alia of cabinet confidentiality. You can view the report here .
  • The Office of Fair Trading, UK, announced that it has decided to withdraw its criminal proceedings against four current and former British Airways executives for price-fixing. You can link to the OFT's announcement here and to a further announcement here.
  • Amcor Limited issued a news release dated 19 March 2010 in relation to the class action proceeding commenced by Jarra Creek Central Packaging Shed Pty Ltd.
  • The Federal Court of Australia Amendment (Criminal Jurisdiction) Bill 2009 has now been passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Briefly, the Bill sets out the procedural framework which allows the Federal Court to exercise the indictable criminal jurisdiction so as to deal with serious cartel offences. The homepage for the Bill states that the Bill was introduced to the Parliament with the Trade Practices Amendment (Cartel Conduct and Other Measures) Bill 2008 and that the bill amends the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1983, Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 and Judiciary Act 1903 to enable the Federal Court to apply uniform indictable criminal procedure across Australia to deal with serious cartel offences. The Bill also makes consequential and other amendments to five other Acts. To go to the homepage for the Bill, which includes the text of the Bill as approved by Parliament, the Explanatory Memorandum and other key information for the Bill click here.
  • The ACCC has released guidelines on the new cartel laws and its approach to cartel investigations. Associate Professor Caron Beaton-Wells commented on the guidelines in the Australian Financial Review on 17 July 2009. Her comments are available here.
  • The Trade Practices Amendment (Cartel Conduct and Other Measures) Act 2009 received Royal Assent on 26 June 2009. For the text of the Bill as approved by Parliament click here. For the consolidated version of the Trade Practices Act 1974 incorporating the amendments made by the Trade Practices Amendment (Cartel Conduct and Other Measures) Act 2009, click through to our section Australian competition law resources on our Useful links page here.