Australian and New Zealand competition and consumer protection regimes
report
Australian and New Zealand competition and consumer protection regimes
Research report
This research report was released on 13 January 2005.
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There has already been significant convergence of Australia's and New Zealand's competition and consumer protection regimes, particularly by international standards.
- Consequently, the regimes are not significantly impeding businesses operating in Australasian markets.
Major changes to the two regimes are not warranted at this stage.
- Full integration, requiring identical laws and procedures and a single institutional framework, would have high implementation and ongoing costs, change the operation of the existing national regimes and achieve only moderate benefits.
- Partial integration, involving retaining the two national regimes, but establishing a single system to handle certain matters having Australasian dimensions, also would be unlikely to achieve net benefits.
However, the long-term objective of a single economic market for Australia and New Zealand would be assisted by a package of measures involving a transitional approach to integration of the two regimes.
This package would improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the regimes in dealing with present day competition and consumer protection matters having Australasian dimensions.
The transitional integration package, while retaining national sovereignty for each jurisdiction, would include:
- retaining, but further harmonising, the two sets of laws in relation to competition and consumer protection policy
- making more formal the policy dialogue between the two Governments on competition policy
- providing scope for businesses to have certain approvals considered on a 'single track' (but with separate decisions)
- enhancing cooperation between the two regulatory institutions (the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the New Zealand Commerce Commission), including in relation to enforcement and research
- providing for the investigative powers of the regulators to be used to assist the regulator in the other country
- enhancing the information sharing powers between regulators (safeguards should be included to ensure that confidential information shared between regulators can remain protected from disclosure)
- adding consideration of impediments to a single economic market to the scope of the proposed review of Australian consumer protection.
Implementation of the recommendations would provide a framework in which the competition and consumer protection regimes of Australia and New Zealand evolve as:
- the Australasian business environment integrates further
- the broader policy environment develops further as the two Governments make progress towards the goal of establishing a single economic market.
