The ACCC is seeking submissions on a draft determination issued today proposing to deny authorisation to an extension of a Charter Alliance Agreement between
"At this stage, the ACCC is not satisfied that the public benefits likely to result from the Charter Alliance Agreement in the next five years will outweigh the public detriment that is likely to result from
The Charter Alliance Agreement enables
"The proposed extension of the Charter Alliance Agreement would continue to eliminate competition between
In
"The ACCC seeks further submissions to assist it to understand whether the public benefits claimed to result from the agreement by the applicants five years ago have actually been realised, and also how market conditions have changed in that time. This will help to inform our forward-looking assessment of the likely public benefits and detriments,"
"At present, the ACCC is not satisfied that the public benefits claimed to arise from combining
The ACCC accepts that the Charter Alliance Agreement is likely to result in some operational efficiencies, such as integrating
"It is unclear whether the likely benefits are sufficiently significant to outweigh the anti-competitive detriment, and whether they will be substantially passed through to or realised by customers,"
"The ACCC wishes to test the public benefit claims made by the applicants further, particularly with FIFO customers."
"The test for authorisation requires that the ACCC must not grant authorisation unless it is satisfied in all the circumstances that the proposed conduct would result in a benefit to the public that would outweigh the likely detriment to the public from the proposed conduct,"
The ACCC will make its final decision after considering submissions from interested parties on the draft determination. The draft determination and more information on how to make a submission are available on the ACCC public register at
The ACCC is seeking submissions on the draft determination by 4 November.
Further information is available at
Background
The applicants,
On
The interim authorisation will remain in place until the date the ACCC's final determination comes into effect, the application for authorisation is withdrawn, or until the ACCC decides to revoke the interim authorisation. Release number: 149/22ACCC Infocentre:
Use this form to make a general enquiry. Media enquiries: Media Team - 1300 138 917, media@accc.gov.au
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(C) 2022 M2 COMMUNICATIONS, source