Check out my recent ACCC video case note entitled “Failed flat steel fix falls foul of Federal Court” in which I look at Justice O’Bryan’s decision in ACCC v BlueScope Steel Limited (No 5) [2022] FCA 1475, which involved an attempt to induce a price fix in the national market for the supply of flat steel products through the benchmarking and overseas mills strategies. I also look at the earlier obstruction case, the relevant law of attempt, and the application of the attribution provisions. Run time 30 mins (which I think is pretty impressive given Justice O’Bryan’s judgment was 450 pages lon ..read more

Check out my recent presentation outlining the ACCC’s 2023-24 Compliance and Enforcement Priorities.  In the presentation I discuss why and how the ACCC prioritises competition and consumer matters, the ACCC’s litigation funnel, the ACCC’s performance against their 2021-2022 targets, formal outcomes achieved by the ACCC during 2021-22 (ie litigation, s87 undertakings and infringement notices) and a couple of suggested new priority areas for 2024-25. Run time 35 mins ..read more

If you are interested, have a look at the recent submission from the Small and Medium Enterprise Committee, Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia to The Treasury about the Review of the Dispute Resolution Provisions in the Food and Grocery Code. In our Committee's view, the voluntary code is not effective as demonstrated by the significant discrepancies between the number of supplier complaints raised with the Code Arbiters as compared to the number of supplier complaints raised with the Independent Reviewer, as disclosed in his Annual Reports. Michael Terceiro, Deputy Chair ..read more

Check out my recent video case note entitled "Not Just a Rubber Stamp: ACCC v Uber B.V. [2022] FCA 1466" which discusses Justice O'Bryan's judgment, including his extensive criticisms of the evidence filed in support of the agreed penalty.   ..read more

Check out my video case note entitled "Getting lost in Narnia" discussing Justice Yate's decision in ACCC v Google LLC (No 2) 2022 FCA 1476 in which the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was unsuccessful in their case against Google alleging that Google had engaged in misleading conduct in the roll out of Project Narnia ..read more

Check out my recent Video Note entitled "Epic Games downed by FTA double pump" which discusses the US Federal Trade Commission's recent cases against Epic Games for privacy breaches under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and dark pattern breaches under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Epic Games was hit with a monetary penalty of $US275m for the COPPA breaches and had to pay $US245m in compensation for the dark pattern breaches. Run time 22 mins ..read more

Just finished updating and revising the Misrepresentation and Unfair Practices Chapters of the CCH Australian Competition and Consumer Law Reporter, Volume 2 – Consumer Law. https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en-nz/solutions/cch-intelliconnect-apac/australian-competition-and-consumer-law-reporter ..read more

Video Case Note looking at Anderson J's decision in ASIC v Commonwealth Bank of Australia [2022] FCA 1149 concerning the conflicted remuneration provisions of the Corporations Law 2001 (ss 963A, 963E, 963L and 963K) and the reasons for ASIC's comprehensive loss ..read more

Check out my ACCC 2022 Retrospective where I outline the ACCC's Highs and Lows for 2022 in terms of enforcement, legislative changes and policy developments. Runtime 40 mins. Happy New Year!   ..read more

Check out my recent video case note entitled "Lifting the Lid on the NQ Cranes case" in which I discuss the penalty decision in ACCC v NQ Cranes Pty Ltd [2022] FCA 1383 and draw attention to some unsatisfactory aspects of the case ..read more