ACCC’s enforcement and compliance policy update 2022-2023

Rod Sims

Speech to Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), 3 March 2022

Rod Sims, ‘ACCC's enforcement and compliance policy update 2022-23’ (Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), 3 March 2022)

Introduction

Thank you to CEDA for again allowing me to use this venue to announce the ACCC’s enforcement and compliance policies for 2022-23. This is the eleventh time I have done this; I deeply appreciate CEDA’s willingness to host this annual event.

In my first address to CEDA in 2012 I stressed the importance of the ACCC communicating to the Australian public about ‘the breadth and depth of issues on our plate’.

I believe that just by identifying and communicating our areas of focus we change behaviour, which is why this event is an important part of our approach to addressing competition and consumer issues.

The ACCC’s role, simply put, is to make markets work for consumers now and in the future. Not by overriding markets, but by maintaining and promoting competition and fixing market failure where we can, and by protecting the interests and safety of consumers in the support of a fair marketplace.

Like the rest of the world the focus of our work has been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ACCC has had to be flexible throughout the pandemic, and we have tried to adjust the focus of our work to ensure there is no diminishing of consumer rights while maintaining competition.

Early in 2020, the ACCC received and granted, within a short period, an unprecedented number of applications for authorisations by businesses seeking exemptions to coordinate activity to meet the challenges arising from the pandemic. As these exemptions began expiring in 2021 some parties decided not to seek re-authorisation as the economy started to transition out of various lockdowns.

Although the pandemic continues to impact our economy and society, we do expect reduced need for cooperation among competitors in response to COVID-related issues. The ACCC will, however, continue to be ready to consider urgent exemption applications.

The ACCC’s enforcement and compliance priorities for 2022-23 represent an exciting and important set of issues. For the first time, we are aligning our priorities with the financial year. We will continue to announce these at the start of each calendar year and give immediate focus, placing business and stakeholders on notice of our interest, and initiate implementation. This approach will better allow a transition from priorities finishing to commencing. We have used our usual consultative process to establish them and I am delighted to announce them today. I will also touch on other issues that will be occupying the ACCC in the year ahead.