Number of inquiries and complaints received during 2005-2006

The ACCC Infocentre is the primary contact point for people telephoning or emailing the ACCC. The information received from businesses and consumers is recorded in the ACCC complaints database and used to analyse complaint trends and identify possible areas of further inquiry.

This year the ACCC Infocentre:

received 57,539 telephone calls; 52,644 served 4,453 callers advised to visit website, 468 put off by engaged signal because of large volume of calls or Infocentre telephone system breakdown , 38 voicemail calls.
Of the 52,644 calls served, 407 calls were received on the ACCC small business line introduced as part of the 'small business easy access point,' on the ACCC website.
responded to 73 per cent of calls in less than 20 seconds
entered 42 668 matters on to complaints and inquiries data base (81% of calls served)
received 17 718 e-mails
sent out 221 446 publications to callers
The tables below illustrate the top ten industries for complaints and top ten breaches of the Trade Practices Act recorded by Infocentre staff.

This year the ACCC concluded 23 cases of the 53 matters before the court during the year, plus accepted 54 public undertakings (one of which has not been disclosed for operational reasons); commenced 14 new cases, 1 of which was concluded this year; 30 cases are currently before the courts; the ACCC did not intervene in any proceedings in the reporting period

Litigation matters and undertakings accepted

Snapshots of litigation and administrative settlements

The following information provides a brief summary of enforcement activity undertaken by the ACCC during the year. Information is also available on the website www.accc.gov.au, in the ACCC ejournal or by contacting the Infocentre on 1300 302 502. The information is grouped:
1. litigation concluded during 2005¡V06
2. litigation continuing at end of 2005¡V06
3. undertakings accepted during 2005¡V06

Effective competition and informed markets

Part IV anti-competitive conduct: price fixing, market sharing, boycotts,
agreements substantially lessening competition, misuse of market power, exclusive dealing, resale price maintenance, mergers and acquisitions substantially lessening competition
Part XIA the competition code

Fair trading and consumer protection

Part IVA unconscionable conduct in commercial and consumer transactions
Part IVB industry codes of conduct; the franchising code is a mandatory code
prescribed under Part IVB
Part V unfair practices, misleading and deceptive conduct, pyramid selling,
country of origin representations, product safety and information, conditions and warranties in consumer transactions
Part VC criminal conduct in fair trading and consumer protection 

Adjudication applications, notifications and considerations 2005- 2006

This year the ACCC received 1113 notifications for exclusive dealing, the majority
of which concerned third line forcing; and issued 4 draft revocation notices in relation to exclusive dealing notifications

Authorisation applications

All authorisations including gas, electricity, mergers and general

Notes: Figures in Bold indicate total applications; while the others indicate numbers of projects (i.e. some projects involve multiple applications).

* The opening balance figure differs to the closing balance figure reported in last year's annual report due to an oversight in the number of gas-related authorisations counted in that reporting period.

Notifications

While the majority of new notifications received have been allowed to stand, certain
matters are still being considered by the ACCC. Two matters were withdrawn following draft decisions to revoke being issued. The ACCC continues to consider a further two notifications for which a draft decision to revoke has been issued.

Applications for review by the Australian Competition Tribunal

While no new appeals were lodged with the tribunal, it heard and made decisions in relation to the Victorian Farmers Federation application for collective boycott arrangements in the chicken growing industry and 12 separate authorisations relating to exclusive dealing conduct by various taxi networks. 

Mergers

This year the ACCC examined 272 mergers, acquisitions and asset sales for
their compliance with s. 50 of the Trade Practices Act; 261 were not opposed including 26 that were withdrawn before a final decision was made, 2 were initially opposed following the ACCC's review, and 6 were resolved during their review with court enforceable undertakings; the 2 which were initially opposed were subsequently resolved through the acceptance of court enforceable undertakings; of 141 matters which were considered on a confidential basis, 3 were opposed or had concerns expressed confidentially.

Mergers and joint ventures

* This includes matters that were not opposed plus matters withdrawn before a decision was made and reviews of variations to undertakings.