Competition & Regulation
Competition
Maddocks Competition Law team advises and represents private and public sector clients in relation to all aspects of Australian Competition Law under Part IV of the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the Competition Codes of the various States, as well as industry specific competition regimes in sectors such as Telecommunications and the Internet and anti-dumping investigations and proceedings under the Customs Act 1901.
We have extensive experience advising and representing clients in relation to investigations by ACCC, ACMA, Australian Customs and Border Security and other federal and state competition regulators, including in relation to the application of regulators' coercive information gathering powers. We regularly lead and work with teams of forensic accountants, professional economists and other related professionals to respond to and resolve regulatory investigations.
Unlike many areas of our practice, our success in handling competition and regulatory investigations is marked by the investigations which have never become public knowledge and are not featured in our marketing materials.
We have a detailed understanding of the merger clearance and authorisation rules and regularly assist clients with acquisitions of shares or assets which may raise questions of concentration of market power.
We also regularly advise clients in relation to day to day operational issues in relation to third line forcing and preventing or dealing with allegations of cartel conduct and regularly conduct competition training for our domestic and multi-national clients.
Regulation
Maddocks advises and represents a wide range of Federal, State and industry based regulators in relation to the exercise of their powers, their investigation processes, prosecutions and enforcement.
As well as our extensive experience acting for parties subject to investigation or allegations by regulators, many of Maddocks' partners and lawyers have experience working for or acting on behalf of regulatory agencies such as the Australian Investments and Securities Commission, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Energy Regulator and the World Trade Organisation as well as various police services and other law enforcement agencies.
As a result we have an intimate understanding of the context within which regulators work and the stakeholder needs they must satisfy, which informs the context in which we provide our advice and services when we are acting for a regulator or for a client dealing with a regulator or subject to a regulator's investigation or exercise of its powers.
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