Crossing the cartel line
The ACCC has just one cartel case before the courts. It lays bare one of the most complex areas of competition law and how dinners and emails can become collusion risks.
Cartel conduct, which involves companies that should be competitors working together to the detriment of the rest of the market they operate in, has been illegal in Australia since the 1980s and criminalised since 2010. But this area of law still remains a blindspot for many businesses.
That ignorance makes them vulnerable to legal action from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, which this week saw its latest cartel lawsuit — a dispute against mining technology company Qteq and its executive chairman Simon Ashton — wrapped up in Sydney.
Enforcement action against cartel conduct is listed as an "enduring priority" by the ACCC. But following criminal penalties secured against Bingo Industries and Aussie Skips earlier this year, the Qteq civil case is the only cartel enforcement court matter that's live for now (aside from an ongoing appeal by BlueScope Steel and its former sales manager Jason Ellis). Aussie Skips has also filed an appeal.
I've written previously about the ACCC's overall consumer focus in its priorities for the year, which has also been commented on widely in the legal industry, as the regulator responds to cost-of-living pressures.
