AUS: Telecommunications Competition/Information

5 August 1999

ACCC Issues New Competition Notice Guidelines and Information Paper for Telecommunications

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued new Competition Notice Guidelines which the ACCC must have regard to when deciding whether to issue a competition notice in response to anti-competitive conduct within the telecommunications industry.

The Guidelines replace the ACCC's previous Guidelines, which were issued in mid-1997.

The ACCC has also issued an Information Paper on anti-competitive conduct in the Telecommunications Industry, updating the information paper released in mid-1997. The Information Paper outlines the approach the ACCC will usually take to anti-competitive conduct investigations.

"The Government's amendments to the competition notice regime will give the ACCC greater flexibility in responding to anti-competitive conduct in the telecommunications industry", ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.

"What the Guidelines and the Information Paper show is the importance the ACCC places on acting quickly and rigourously to anti-competitive conduct", Professor Fels said.

Copies of the Guidelines and the Information Paper will be available on the ACCC's web site: www.accc.gov.au.

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