New government, new competition laws?

The new government has announced that it will conduct a "root and branch review" of Australia's competition laws within the first 100 days of taking office. A "root and branch" review will examine every aspect of competition law on a line by line basis.

The Minister for Small Business, Mr Bruce Billson, is responsible for competition and consumer affairs.

In addition to the name of the ministry, "Small Business", Mr Billson's speeches and press releases provide the best insight as to what the review may entail.

This includes:

• greater protection for small businesses, including the extension of the unfair contracts regime to small business (currently the regime applies to standard form consumer contracts);
• an "effects test" to the prohibition on misuse of market power (in addition to the existing "purpose test");
• extension of the price signalling laws (which currently apply to the banking sector) to petrol and other sectors;
• a strong focus on competition issues in the supermarket, banking, retail, airline and petrol sectors; and
• changes to the Franchising Code of Conduct to strengthen its effectiveness.