Abstract
Modern Australian antitrust had not begun when the first U.S. merger guidelines appeared in 1968. Even now, twenty five years later, no similarly detailed, formal administrative guidelines have been developed in Australia. This paper reviews the way in which the AustralianTrade Practices Act 1974 handles mergers and market definition, and considers how the Courts and the Trade Practices Commission, Australia's sole antitrust enforcement agency, have handled market definition and evaluated mergers. The key role played by the Trade Practices Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body, in influencing the Australian approach to mergers and market definition is highlighted. Contrasts are made with the 1992 American guidelines, and reasons for the different approaches are suggested.
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This author was a (part-time) Associate Member of the Trade Practices Commission, Australia's antitrust enforcement agency, from 1986 to 1991. This paper was written while Round was Pew Visiting Fellow in Economics at Wesleyan University in Spring 1992.
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Round, D.K., Miller, R.A. The Australian merger guidelines: A comparison with the U.S. merger guidelines. Rev Ind Organ 8, 211–229 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01034179
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01034179