2 results
Australia
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- By Allan Fels, The Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, Sharon Henrick, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Martyn Taylor, Gilbert + Tobin, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- General editor Maher M. Dabbah, Queen Mary University of London, Paul Lasok QC
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- Book:
- Merger Control Worldwide
- Published online:
- 05 November 2014
- Print publication:
- 31 May 2012, pp 78-125
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- Chapter
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Summary
Overview
The Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) contains the primary rules for the regulation of mergers which may have detrimental effects on competition in Australia. Australia also has rules which apply to mergers in specific industries, such as the media industry and the banking sector, as well as foreign investment rules.
Sections 50 and 50A of the Trade Practices Act regulate acquisitions of shares and/or assets. Section 50 is the key section. It prohibits mergers or acquisitions that would have the effect, or be likely to have the effect, of substantially lessening competition in a market in Australia.
The Trade Practices Act does not contain a mandatory pre-merger notiication process. In practice, however, virtually all mergers that affect, or could conceivably affect, competition in Australia are voluntarily notiied in advance of their completion to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (‘the Commission’ or ACCC). If the Commission considers a merger would be likely to substantially lessen competition then it may apply to the Federal Court of Australia to obtain orders to prevent the merger from completing.
Notiications to the Commission are made using either a formal or an informal merger clearance procedure. However, the formal merger clearance procedure has not yet been used and the Commission has expressed a clear preference for applicants to use the informal clearance procedure.
3 - Australia
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- By Professor Allan Fels, The Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Parkville, Australia, Sharon Henrick, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Sydney, Australia, Dr Martyn Taylor, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Sydney, Australia
- General editor Maher M. Dabbah, Queen Mary University of London, K. P. E. Lasok QC
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- Book:
- Merger Control Worldwide
- Published online:
- 30 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 May 2008, pp 15-17
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- Chapter
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Summary
Notification requirements and procedures
This Supplement identifies proposed amendments to the existing “informal clearance” procedure used by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for merger review in Australia. This Supplement adopts the defined terms used in the original Australia chapter of Merger Control Worldwide and is intended to replace section 3.1.3 and Figure 1 of the original Australia chapter.
Relevantly, the Trade Practices Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2005 (the “Dawson Bill”) referred to in section 1.1 of the original chapter was defeated in the Australian Senate in October 2005 and so has not been enacted into law. The Dawson Bill was intended to introduce a new formal merger clearance procedure that would operate in parallel with the existing informal clearance procedure in Australia. A political impasse is delaying the reintroduction of the merger reform provisions of the Dawson Bill into the Australian Parliament although it is likely to be reintroduced during 2006 or 2007.
Informal clearance
The third option is to seek informal clearance from the Commission for the merger on a confidential or non-confidential basis. If the Commission grants informal clearance to a merger, the parties to the merger obtain a “comfort letter”, which usually states that the Commission will not oppose the merger but reserves the right to do so should new information come to light. While a comfort letter is not binding on the Commission, it is rare for the Commission to grant informal clearance and subsequently oppose the merger.