ACCC

BlueScope Steel general manager Jason Ellis wanted no record kept of a meeting with four of the company's competing steel distributors and warned his national sales manager to keep the talks under wraps, a court hearing the ACCC's price-fixing case was told on Thursday.  

A judge has ordered the ACCC to pay the State of NSW's costs in its failed proceeding against NSW Ports, finding that even though the consumer watchdog did not initially sue the state government that it was a "necessary and proper" party to the case.

A former Deutsche Bank executive named in a criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement says the charges against him are defective and should be quashed.

BlueScope has labelled "delusional" an argument by the competition regulator that alleged correspondence from a distributor about the steel company’s suggested higher prices was evidence of price-fixing.

Steel maker Bluescope’s claim that it didn't engage in cartel conduct because it only encouraged distributors to set a price for its products would "eviscerate" cartel laws, the ACCC has told a court.

ACCC chair Rod Sims has mooted a raft of reforms to Australia’s merger and acquisitions regime, which he said Friday was ‘skewed towards clearance’.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is investigating whether new legislation is needed to address the impact of dominant digital platforms such as Google and Apple, as the regulator’s overseas counterparts usher in bills aimed at cracking down on anticompetitive behaviour.

The banks and high-ranking executives targeted in pared-down criminal cartel proceedings over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement are taking new steps to shut down the long-running case, including further probes into the ACCC's conduct during its investigation into the alleged cartel.

Prosecutors have withdrawn two-thirds of the charges in a criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement and have dropped their case against former Citigroup CEO Stephen Roberts, according to a lawyer in the case.

Criminal cartel charges against the CFMEU and its ACT branch secretary have been dropped amid concerns about witnesses' ability to recall the events at the centre of the case, two months after witness credibility concerns led to a stinging defeat for the ACCC in the Country Care criminal cartel trial.