International Law

The Commonwealth Government has introduced into the  Parliament the Trade Practices Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 to implement changes previously announced.

The amendments will:

• ensure that victims of predatory pricing will not need to prove that the predator has the ability to recoup losses after participating in an anticompetitive, below cost pricing strategy.
• clarify the meaning of the term 'take advantage' in section 46 in response to concerns that the present meaning of that term has prevented section 46 from capturing anticompetitive behaviour.

The Bill amends the Trade Practices Act to require that at least one of the Deputy Chairpersons of the ACCC have knowledge of, or experience in, small business matters. It also extends the jurisdiction of the Federal Magistrates Court to cases involving alleged breaches of section 46 of the Trade Practices Act.

The Bill also removes the existing arbitrary monetary threshold currently that applies to allegations of unconscionable conduct in business transactions.