The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has opened a formal review into whether Google’s $3 billion acquisition of fitness device company Fitbit will harm competition, including the potential impact of the search giant’s increased access to user data.
The ACCC has revealed that it will bring at least four new competition cases this year, with chairman Rod Sims also promising that the regulator could pick up the pace when it comes to launching proceedings.
Two Geowash executives have appealed a ruling that found they were knowingly involved in the car wash franchisor’s unconscionable conduct in its dealings with franchisees.
The ACCC claims it was not required to prove Kimberly-Clark’s flushable wipes caused actual harm to sewers, as it challenges a ruling that disposed of its consumer law case against the personal care giant.
The ACCC has approved Hong Kong-based China Mengniu Dairy Company’s acquisition of Lion Dairy & Drinks, saying the deal was not likely to substantially lessen competition in the raw milk market.
Pacific National has defended a decision by a judge to accept an undertaking and rule against the ACCC in its competition case over the rail operator’s acquisition of a major freight terminal in Queensland, saying the ruling was structured with “commendable judicial economy”.
The judge who dismissed the ACCC’s challenge to Pacific National’s acquisition of Aurizon’s Acacia Ridge Terminal in Queensland had no power to accept an undertaking by the rail operator as an answer to the competition regulator’s case, an appeals court has been told.
An ACCC officer who was heading up a team investigating alleged cartel conduct by ANZ Banking Group and three investment banks has admitted that the regulator may have made an ‘oversight’ in a letter of comfort offered to JPMorgan ahead of the bank’s immunity application in the case.
The Federal Government has blessed the ACCC’s request for an extended public inquiry into Google and Facebook as well as a separate probe into the tech giants’ advertising practices, arming the regulator with the power to collect information on the companies’ advertising and search algorithms.
Vodafone has won its case against the ACCC over its proposed merger with rival telecommunications company TPG, with a judge ruling the tie-up would not substantially lessen competition and had a real chance of becoming a “competitive force” against the two dominant players in the market, Telstra and Optus.