Celebrating 50-years of the groundbreaking Trade Practices Act 1974
Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chairperson, ACCC.
Monash Law’s Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies (CLARS) recently teamed up with the Monash Digital Lab and the Department of Economics of the Monash Business School to host a historic conference, ‘50 Years of Competition Law and Economics in Australia’.
The conference marked the Golden Anniversary of Australia’s Trade Practices Act 1974, known these days as the Competition and Consumer Act.
More than 80 attendees gathered at this ‘birthday’ conference, held on 14-15 November at Monash’s Caulfield campus. The event featured opening remarks from both Dean Simon Wilkie of the Monash Faculty of Business and Economics and Interim Dean of Law, Professor Marilyn Pittard.
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From left to right, Mel Marquis, Nick De Young, Justice Michael O’Bryan, Bill Kovacic, Allan Fels, Elizabeth Avery, Luke Woodward, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chengsi Wang, Darryl Biggar, and George Siolis.
The conference was part of an ongoing series of inter-Faculty events organised by Mel Marquis of the Law Faculty (CLARS and Monash Digital Lab) and Chengsi Wang of the Faculty of Business and Economics (Director, Monash Digital Lab).
The event was supported by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and featured a keynote address from the ACCC Chairperson, Gina Cass-Gottlieb. Her keynote speech highlighted the shaping of Australian competition law by, in particular, past Monash Professors Bob Baxt (Law) and Maureen Brunt (Economics). The contributions and collaborations of these legendary scholars deeply influenced the trajectory of the Trade Practices Act and its interpretation whilst influencing several generations of practitioners and policy makers.
Professor Marilyn Pittard, Interim Dean (Monash Law) and Dr Mel Marquis, Deputy Associate Dean (Monash Law).
Among other luminaries from the Competition law, economics and policy community, the eminent speakers and moderators at the conference included:
- the Honourable Michael O’Bryan of the Federal Court of Australia;
- former ACCC Chairs Rod Sims and Allan Fels as well as former ACCC Commissioners Stephen King and Rhonda Smith; and
- leading academics and experts from near and abroad such as Professor Bill Kovacic (George Washington University Law School and former Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission), Professor Martin Peitz (University of Mannheim and adviser to Germany’s Federal Cartel Office), Professor Deborah Healey (UNSW Law & Justice), and Honorary Professor Brent Fisse (CLARS Affiliate member and Principal of Brent Fisse Lawyers).
The conference provided a unique occasion to discuss the past and future of competition law and economics in Australia.
Dr Mel Marquis, Deputy Associate Dean (Monash Law).
The Trade Practices Act was among the world’s earliest competition and consumer statutes, introducing game-changing provisions as a new public sensitivity to consumer interests emerged in the early 1970s. Over time this novel legislation transformed business practices in a national economy where cartels had been common and essentially unrestricted prior to 1974, and it promoted a ‘competition culture’ that other nations have often sought to emulate.
The conference reflected on these profound changes brought about by the Act, and further considered the trends, reforms and problems facing this policy field today. Current challenges discussed at the event included the need for ex ante regulation of certain platform services in digital markets to protect consumers and small businesses; and the new pre-merger notification regime for large-scale acquisitions expected to enter into force in 2026, a major institutional and procedural innovation in Australian competition law.
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