ECONOMICS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

2 June 2010

Inquiry into Competition and Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2010

On 27 May 2010 the Senate referred the Competition and Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 for inquiry and report.

The Competition and Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 will clarify the ACCC’s power to prevent creeping acquisitions by ensuring that the ACCC can examine acquisitions reducing competition in a local market. The bill will also clarify the law concerning unconscionable conduct by including some interpretative provisions.

To allow time to consider submissions carefully and conduct public hearings, the Committee would like to receive submissions by Friday, 4 June 2010.

The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online at the Committee's inquiry website: http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/economics_ctte/competition_consumer_10/index.htm or sent by email to economics.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.

Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
The Secretary
Senate Economics Legislation Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

E-mailed submissions should include your name, phone number and postal address (in the email, not the submission) so we can verify them.

Submissions are confidential until the Committee releases them. You must not release your submission until the Committee advises that it has accepted and released it. Submissions are protected by parliamentary privilege but the unauthorised release of them is not.

The Committee will normally make submissions public unless there is a request for confidentiality. If you would like a submission or part of it to be kept confidential please say so clearly in the submission. The Committee will sympathetically consider requests for confidentiality, but cannot make promises in advance. If you have concerns about confidentiality I encourage you to ring me to discuss this before lodging the submission.

Notes on making submissions are available from the website at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. The Committee secretariat can also help: phone 02 6277 3540 or email eonomics.sen@aph.gov.au

More information about this Committee is at http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/economics_ctte/index.htm .

We look forward to receiving your views on this important issue.

Yours sincerely

John Hawkins
Secretary