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SYDNEY, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia will make it easier to prosecute anti-competitive and cartel-like behaviour via one of the biggest changes to competition legislation in decades.
The changes outlined in a bill released on Monday include a stronger version of the "effects test" to prevent companies holding too much market power, exactly in line with a government review released in March 2015.
"Australia's current misuse of market power law is not reliably enforceable... and permits anti-competitive conduct," Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison told reporters in Sydney.
The most contentious change puts Australia's supermarket duopoly and big banks firmly in the anti-trust regulators' sights, changing the effects test from the widely used "take advantage" defense, to any conduct engaged with the purpose, effect or likely effect of substantially lessening competition in any market.
"One of the frustrations of the current practice is unless price signalling is caught up in a particular contractual arrangement, i.e. between petrol or oil companies, or banks, or retailers... then it doesn't fall foul of the current provisions," Morrison said.
"This change provides for a doctrine of concerted practice, which looks at the practicing of firms in this areas, and it provides another opportunity for the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) to ensure that there are enforceable laws for dealing with price signalling."
The bill will be open for public consultation until the end of September, when the state and territory governments will be consulted on proposed changes.
The changes however face an obstructionist federal parliament with Morrison's political opposition already vowing they will block the measures.
