Year

2023

Credit points

10

Campus offering

No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.

Prerequisites

LAWS104 Foundations of Law and Legal Research AND LAWS105 Contract Law

Teaching organisation

4 hours per week for twelve weeks or equivalent.

Unit rationale, description and aim

Competition law deals with the law’s response to anti-competitive conduct, that is, conduct on the part of firms designed to reduce, eliminate or prevent competition in the economy, or which has this effect. It proceeds on the basis that, as a general rule, competition produces economic, social and political benefits for society as a whole and that, therefore, anti-competitive conduct should be prohibited or regulated. The unit will examine the common law and various statutory treatments of this area.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Appreciate and articulate the economic, social and political rationale advanced for prohibiting anti-competitive conduct (GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8,) 

LO2 - Understand and apply the economic concepts used in competition law (GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA8) 

LO3 - Describe and critically evaluate the competition law provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9,) 

LO4 - Apply the law to factual situations and thereby advise clients and others of their obligations in those situations (GA3, GA4, GA6, GA7, GA8) 

LO5 - Compare and contrast Australian competition law with that in certain other jurisdictions and evaluate its effectiveness (GA3, GA4, GA6, GA8,). 

Graduate attributes

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Content

Topics will include:

  • The goals of competition law
  • The economics of competition law
  • Cartels and other anti-competitive agreements
  • Exclusive dealing
  • Misuse of market power
  • Resale price maintenance
  • Mergers and acquisition
  • Authorisation and notification
  • Enforcement, penalties and remedies
  • Overview of competition law in selected overseas jurisdictions

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

Mode: Lectures, tutorials, electronic consultation, library tasks and presentations or Online lectures and activities.  

Duration:3 hours per week over 12 weeks or equivalent.  Students are expected to spend 150 hours in total for this unit. 

 

This level three elective unit allows students to demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding in a specialist area of law building on knowledge developed in the compulsory law units.  

 

Our strategy is to encourage students to creatively engage with unit content and to apply knowledge, skills and understanding developed in the compulsory areas of law to a specialist area of law.  

 

The unit is designed to be delivered in intensive, weekly mode or online mode. We have taken a blended learning approach to provide accessibility and flexibility to our students and a student focused approach that increases depth of learning and engagement through actively utilising LEO.  

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment strategy is designed to assess knowledge, skills and understanding in a specialist area of law, and to apply knowledge developed in the compulsotry law units to a specialist area of law.  

 

The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each of the learning outcomes listed.  

Overview of assessments

Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment TasksWeightingLearning OutcomesGraduate Attributes

Online Quizzes

  • Periodic, timed online quizzes with questions drawn from course materials for each topic.
  • To encourage continued student engagement with the course content and materials.

20% 

LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5

GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA7, GA8, GA9

Research assignment

  • Selecting a research topic, or developing one with approval of the LIC
  • Conducting a literature review.
  • Synthesising multiple viewpoints into a cohesive and persuasive piece of work

40% 

LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5

GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9

Final exam

  • Problem based question/s
  • Time pressured, requiring technical legal analysis and application

40% 

LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4

GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9 

Representative texts and references

Required text

Alex Bruce, Australian Competition Law (LexisNexis, 3rd ed, 2018)


Recommended further texts

Arlen Duke, Corones’ Competition Law in Australia (Thomson Reuters, 7th ed, 2018)

Russell V Miller, Miller’s Australian Competition and Consumer Law Annotated (Thomson Reuters, 42nd ed, 2020)


Recommended ACCC publications

ACCC, ‘Merger Guidelines’ (November 2017) <https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Merger%20guidelines%20-%20Final.PDF>

ACCC, ‘Informal Merger Review Process Guidelines 2013’ (7 November 2017) <https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/D17-156292%20Informal%20Merger%20Review%20Process%20Guidelines%20-%20updated%20November%202017_0.PDF>

ACCC, ‘Guidelines on misuse of market power’ (31 August 2018) <https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Updated%20Guidelines%20on%20Misuse%20of%20Market%20Power.pdf>

ACCC, ‘ACCC immunity & cooperation policy for cartel conduct - October 2019’ (6 September 2019) <https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/1579_ACCC%20immunity%20%26%20cooperation%20policy%20for%20cartel%20conduct%20-%20October%202019_FA.pdf>

ACCC, ‘ACCC immunity & cooperation policy: frequently asked questions - October 2019’ (6 September 2019) <https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/1579_ACCC%20immunity%20%26%20cooperation%20policy%20frequently%20asked%20questions%20-%20October%202019_FA.pdf>

ACCC, ‘ACCC cooperation policy for enforcement matters’ (31 July 2002) <https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/ACCC%20cooperation%20policy%20July%202002.pdf>

ACCC, ‘Guidelines for Authorisation of conduct (non-merger)’ (5 March 2019) <https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Guidelines%20for%20Authorisation%20of%20conduct%20%28non-merger%29_0.pdf >

ACCC, ‘guidelines on concerted practices’ (31 August 2018)

<https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Updated%20Guidelines%20on%20Concerted%20Practices.pdf>

ACCC, ‘ACCC guidelines - use of s. 155 powers’ (12 June 2019) <https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/1582RPT_ACCC%20Guidelines-Use%20of%20section%20155%20powers_FAJune20.pdf >

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