Corporations Amendment (No. 1) Act 2010

The Corporations Amendment (No. 1) Act received the Royal assent on 24 November 2010, and is awaiting proclamation.

The Act expands ASIC's powers to seek search warrants, and permits telephone tapping in relation to market manipulation and insider trading invetigations (by amending the Telecommunications (Interceptions Access) Act 1979. It also allows inspection of register held on computer to be inspected by computer, rather than hard copy, and for a copy of a register held on a computer to be provided in accordance with the regulations. Further, the Act limits the purposes for which information obtained from a register to be used to those permitted in accordance with the regulations.

In relation to penalties for market manipulation and insider trading, these have been increased to:

• for an individual: 10 year imprisonment and the greater of 4,500 penalty units ($495,000) or 3 times the benefit derived
• for a corporation: the greater of 4,500 penalty units ($495,000) or 3 times the benefit derived.

If the benefit cannot be determined, 10% of the corporation's turnover for the preceding 12 months (including turnover of related bodies corporate).