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This Month

South Australia’s Northern coal power station in Port Augusta was closed in 2016 and subsequently blown up.

Power findings show ‘failure of privatisation’: SA energy minister

Minister Tom Koutsantonis says the behaviour of large power generators reported by the Australian Energy Regulator is “extremely concerning”.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Gina Cass-Gottlieb has gone after a bunch of Australia’s best known businesses in her two and a half years in charge of the ACCC. She added a few more to the trophy cabinet on Thursday.

Nothing like an ACCC cartel case to scare the pants off corporate Australia

Cartel cases – even the ones that bomb – are scary. This is questionable, but definitely worth watching.

  • Anthony Macdonald
Downer and Ventia Services help maintain and operate Defence bases around the country

Downer EDI, Ventia Services execs named in price-fixing allegations

The contractors’ shares tumbled as investors worried whether the allegations would hurt their ability to win tens of billions of dollars of future Defence contracts.

  • Updated
  • Jenny Wiggins
The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has given preliminary approval for Virgin’s plan to “wet lease” Qatar planes staffed by overseas crews.

Qantas’ misdeeds shouldn’t scuttle Virgin-Qatar deal

The TWU stoush with Bain Capital over the next Virgin boss highlights corporate Australia’s wider reputational issues that have fuelled the populist backlash against business.

  • The AFR View
Gina Cass-Gottlieb’s looking more closely at supermarkets in response to rising cost-of-living pressures.

What’s really at stake in Coles and Woolies’ pricing fight with ACCC

Coles and Woolworths know they’ve already lost their fight with the ACCC over allegedly dodgy discounts in the court of public opinion. But there are two reasons they’ll still want a legal victory.

  • James Thomson
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Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy has backed ASIC and the ACCC in their bid to pay barristers more.

Treasury head Steven Kennedy backs ASIC, ACCC on barrister pay

The department’s secretary has personally lobbied to end a 13-year freeze on what barristers can earn for doing government work.

  • Ronald Mizen

November

Three sliding-doors moments defined ACCC boss Gina Cass-Gottlieb’s life

When Gina Cass-Gottlieb was hired, some said she was too close to big business. She’s instead proven to be a godsend for the federal government.

  • Ronald Mizen
Webjet

Webjet misled customers on fares for years, says ACCC

The online travel agency allegedly charged one customer $21,764 more after the booking had been made. Webjet says it is cooperating with the regulator.

  • Ayesha de Kretser
PEXA is the largest property settlement platform by some distance, with its competitors hoping it will be forced to open its platform

Legal threats and ACCC ‘assessment’ rock PEXA-Sympli stoush

The Commonwealth Bank-backed property settlement exchange warns it could sue the regulator if forced to share information that would end its dominance.

  • Kylar Loussikian
Coles CEO Leah Weckert testified at the ACCC supermarket hearing on Thursday.

Coles says focusing only on low prices sent customers away

Appearing at a competition inquiry, chief executive Leah Weckert says experience has shown shoppers want more than just cheap products.

  • Updated
  • Carrie LaFrenz
The ACCC rarely holds public hearings. Of the four it has held, three have been against the major supermarkets and petrol retailers. Supermarkets are clearly a high-profile target for the regulators.

Supermarket grilling just a political distraction

The primary driver of the Coles and Woolworths business model is volume, not margin as the politicians or regulators would have us all believe.

  • Robert Hadler
Woolworths boss Amanda Bardwell speaks at the ACCC hearing on Tuesday.

Woolworths suppliers put on ‘holiday’ for price pushback, ACCC hears

The competition regulator’s public hearings have been told some producers did not receive any orders from the supermarket if they refused to drop prices.

  • Carrie LaFrenz
Woolworths boss Amanda Bardwell at the ACCC hearing on Monday.

ACCC takes on Woolworths boss in rare intervention

The supermarket giant appeared at a public hearing on Monday as the regulator investigated the market power of it and its biggest rival, Coles.

  • Carrie LaFrenz and Tom McIlroy
Brad Banducci was back in the spotlight again on Monday, despite his recent retirement.

The moment the ACCC boss put the heat on Woolies

The competition regulator is clearly sceptical about the way the supermarket giants use discounts, and whether the market is really competitive.

  • James Thomson
Every few years, we get bankers picking over Australia’s rural services groups. This time it is Elders buying Delta Ag.

Monday’s big deal shows domestic M&A is definitely not dead

For all the bluster we hear from bankers and lawyers about the ACCC, companies are still willing to take on the competition regulator.

  • Anthony Macdonald
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The changes to Velocity will reward big spenders but make it harder for some flyers to accrue points.

Etihad rips up Virgin frequent flier partnership after Qatar deal

The Bain Capital-backed airline has told the ACCC that it will retain alliance arrangements with Singapore Airlines despite its new major shareholder.

  • Updated
  • Fiona Carruthers and Ayesha de Kretser
A tractor pulls a seeder and plow over a wheat field near Gunnedah, NSW. Elders is the largest seller of farming supplies in the country.

Elders supercharges agribusiness consolidation with $475m Delta buy

One of the country’s largest farm services groups is buying its private equity-backed rival in a deal expected to be scrutinised by the competition regulator.

  • Updated
  • Simon Evans
Woolworths chief executive Amanda Bardwell and Coles’ Leah Weckert faced a 10 day blowtorch from the Albanese government.

Inside the two weeks from hell for the country’s biggest supermarkets

This week, Woolworths chief executive Amanda Bardwell and Coles’ Leah Weckert will have a chance to tell their side of the story in hearings run by the ACCC.

  • Tom McIlroy and Carrie LaFrenz
CBA CEO Matt Comyn at the ASIC Annual Forum on Thursday afternoon.

CBA’s Comyn boils over at Apple free-riding on banks

The CBA boss said the government should consider hitting tech companies with a bank-style levy to even the competitive playing field.

  • James Eyers and Lucas Baird
Corrs head of corporate Sandy Mak expects M&A deals to spike ahead of the merger reforms.

M&A deals to spike ahead of merger reforms, says Corrs

The new regime is likely to capture more deals and involve longer reviews, the law firm has warned.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/australian-competition-and-consumer-commission-jl6