Year

2024

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.

Learning Outcome NumberLearning Outcome Description
LO1Appreciate and articulate the economic, social and political rationale advanced for prohibiting anti-competitive conduct
LO2Understand and apply the economic concepts used in competition law
LO3Describe and critically evaluate the competition law provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010
LO4Apply the law to factual situations and thereby advise clients and others of their obligations in those situations
LO5Compare 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 TasksWeightingLearning Outcomes

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

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

Final exam

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

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 >

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