Competition
Competition is an important driver of economic dynamism and productivity, encouraging businesses to pass on to consumers and workers:
- lower prices
- higher quality products
- higher wages.
This helps to ease cost‑of‑living pressures over time.
Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions contribute to the efficient functioning of the economy by providing ways for businesses to:
- achieve economies of scale
- diversify risk and
- exit underperforming businesses.
Anti‑competitive mergers and acquisitions can limit innovation, reduce quality and increase prices.
Review
The Competition Review looked at:
- effectiveness of Australia's current merger rules and processes
- ways to improve merger rules and processes.
The Competition Review Taskforce provided advice to government on changes to Australia’s merger rules and processes.
Reforming merger control
The government will reform merger rules to streamline the approvals process by introducing a mandatory and suspensory administrative system for mergers and acquisitions.
This reform will:
- make Australia’s merger system faster, stronger, simpler, more targeted and more transparent
- mean that the ACCC can detect and stop harmful anti‑competitive mergers and acquisitions.
The government introduced into Parliament the Treasury Laws Amendment (Mergers and Acquisitions Reform) Bill 2024 to implement the new merger system on 10 October 2024.
For more information, see Merger reform for a more competitive economy: government response to consultation.
Consultation
Previous
Merger Notification Thresholds consultation – August 2024
Exposure draft consultation – July 2024
Issues consultation – November 2023