Effect on Competition of Corporate Acquisitions as a Factor in Authorisation Applications to the Trade Practices Commission

Abstract

In this article the author exhaustively examines the decisions of both the Trade Practices Commission and Tribunal and abstracts from them a number of general conclusions which are of invaluable assistance in interpreting section 50 of the Trade Practices Act. This discussion is particularly apposite in the present economic climate when the merger is increasingly popular, especially as the Act has only been recently amended. The author concentrates on “market definition” in all its permutations and discusses the various indicia of altered competition levels and the consequent likelihood of success of a merger application. As the author points out in his conclusion, attention to such details amply repays the effort involved when viewed against the backdrop of sanctions which the Act contains against those who infringe it.