Year
2024Credit points
10Campus 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.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description |
|---|---|
| LO1 | Appreciate and articulate the economic, social and political rationale advanced for prohibiting anti-competitive conduct |
| LO2 | Understand and apply the economic concepts used in competition law |
| LO3 | Describe and critically evaluate the competition law provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 |
| LO4 | Apply the law to factual situations and thereby advise clients and others of their obligations in those situations |
| LO5 | Compare and contrast Australian competition law with that in certain other jurisdictions and evaluate its effectiveness |
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 multimodal 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 Canvas.
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 Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Online Quizzes
| 20% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5 |
Research assignment
| 40% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5 |
Final exam
| 40% | LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4 |
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/about-us/publications/accc-immunity-and-cooperation-policy-frequently-asked-questions
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/Authorisation%20of%20Conduct%20%28non-merger%29%20guidelines%20-%20December%202022_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/Guidelines-Use%20of%20section%20155%20powers.pdf >