This Month
Dealmakers face tougher ‘public benefit’ test on mergers
Businesses using public interest grounds such as climate change action or financial stability to get takeover approvals will face a stricter hurdle from the ACCC.
- Updated
- John Kehoe
Merger crackdown to make ACCC ‘judge and jury’ on deals
More takeovers will be able to be blocked under the government’s move to give the competition watchdog stronger powers than previously thought, lawyers say.
- John Kehoe
The ACCC’s new target | What makes an elite CEO | Earnings season predictions
This week on the Chanticleer podcast, Anthony and special guest companies editor Vesna Poljak look at the ACCC’s latest target, discuss what makes an elite CEO, and make some predictions on earnings season.
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
The Good Guys debacle reveals inflation’s unexpected consequence
When inflation peaked at 7.8 per cent 18 months ago, no one could’ve predicted how it would affect some of our big brands.
- Anthony Macdonald
Not so Good Guys: Electronics chain misled shoppers for years, says ACCC
Customers at the JB Hi-Fi-owned chain may have purchased items which they might not have done otherwise, according to ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
- Carrie LaFrenz
May
They battled blokey workplaces. Now these 33 women enforce the rules
Energy regulator Clare Savage and competition chief Gina Cass-Gottlieb are among 33 women leading Australia’s regulatory bodies, once the domain of male enforcers.
- Tom Burton
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Why didn’t ACCC litigate Qantas?
Is what might be seen as regulatory brand ransom to force companies to admit to lesser charges and avoid the need to litigate, the way the watchdog should seek to uphold Australia’s consumer protection and competition law?
- The AFR View
- Opinion
- Aviation
Qantas’ Hudson takes the chance to shed some Joyce baggage
Vanessa Hudson has finally accepted reality by making a deal with the competition watchdog over ghost flights.
- Jennifer Hewett
- Updated
- Aviation
Qantas pays $120m to settle ghost flights case
Customers on cancelled flights will receive up to $450 in compensation after the airline admitted it misled travellers and agreed to pay $120 million to settle.
- Updated
- Ayesha de Kretser and Lucas Baird
April
The merger that is paying competition dividends
The new deal laws out this week suggest that bringing Gina Cass-Gottlieb into the ACCC led to a poacher-turned-gamekeeper story for the ages.
- Ronald Mizen
Merger reforms ‘will stymie big tech buying up start-ups’
Citing Facebook parent Meta’s purchase of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, Gina Cass-Gottlieb said it was important the ACCC was able to think broadly about merger effects.
- Ronald Mizen and Hannah Wootton
- Opinion
- Competition
Deal makers trumped by economists in M&A shake-up
Lawyers and bankers will lose from the merger overhaul that attempts to tackle economic concerns that industry concentration has led to higher prices and fewer start-ups.
- John Kehoe
- Opinion
- Company mergers
Labor gives the ACCC the merger revolution it wanted
The only real bright spot for business is that the government has rejected the regulator’s initial call for the test for approval to reverse the onus of proof.
- Jeremy Jose
Chalmers’ merger crackdown to shake up M&A
The ACCC will be able to block serial acquisitions and those that entrench the market power of big players, but Jim Chalmers rejected a “presumptive ban” on mergers.
- Ronald Mizen
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Chalmers’ merger reforms will change dealmaking
The treasurer’s sweeping reforms will transform how deals are done in Australia, but could change the way the economy develops.
- James Thomson
The three big changes to merger laws and why they matter
In Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ landmark merger law proposal there are two key changes that will shift how deals are done, and one crucial area he did not touch.
- Hannah Wootton
- Analysis
- Competition
Chalmers embarks on legacy-building merger reforms
How the treasurer’s merger reforms end up working in practice will be known in just a few years. Whether they achieve their economic objective will not be known for decades.
- Ronald Mizen
- Opinion
- Mergers & acquisitions
Business relieved Gina Cass-Gottlieb didn’t win one key change
Jim Chalmers says a streamlined merger approvals process will deliver stronger, faster, simpler results. The ACCC gets more powers – just not as much as it wanted or business feared.
- Jennifer Hewett
March
The two pieces of advice that changed Gina Cass-Gottlieb’s life
The first was from pioneering lawyer Dame Roma Mitchell, and the second was from High Court chief justice Sir Garfield Barwick.
- Ronald Mizen
- Opinion
- The AFR View
We have to get the balance right in banking
Over-prescriptive and risk-averse rules on lending are not just a problem for bankers. They hobble the whole economy.
- The AFR View