Submit Commitments Proposal

Under section 60A of the Competition Act, the purpose of commitments is to remedy, mitigate or prevent:

1. the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition which has resulted or may be expected to result from an agreement between undertakings;^[1]
2. the abuse of a dominant position in a market which has resulted or may be expected to result from an undertaking’s conduct; or
3. the substantial lessening of competition, or adverse effects which (i) may be expected to arise from an anticipated merger if carried into effect, or (ii) have resulted from a merger.

Section 60B of the Competition Act provides that where CCCS has accepted a commitment under section 60A, CCCS shall make a decision that:

1. an agreement between undertakings has not infringed section 34 of the Competition Act;
2. an undertaking’s conduct has not infringed section 47 of the Competition Act; or
3. an anticipated merger or merger will not infringe section 54 of the Competition Act.

Commitments may be submitted by parties to CCCS in the course of the following processes:

1. merger reviews pursuant to applications under sections 57 or 58 of the Competition Act;
2. notifications for decision under sections 44 or 51 of the Competition Act; or
3. investigations for suspected infringements of the sections 34, 47 or 54 prohibitions in the Competition Act.

Parties interested to offer a commitments proposal should use a completed Form CR, which may be revised from time to time.

Where CCCS has accepted a commitment, the party who provided the commitment may apply to CCCS to vary, substitute or release that commitment. CCCS highlights that the burden is on the party making such application to explain the basis for the application and demonstrate how the variation, substitution or release of the original commitments would address any competition concerns persisting at the time of the application, and would not give rise to new competition concerns.

Parties should submit the application to vary, substitute or release a commitment using a completed Form CV, which may be revised from time to time.

Format of documents to submit to CCCS

1. All documents, including Form CR, Form CV and their supporting documents are to be submitted to CCCS in electronic format in a disc (e.g. CD or DVD), or in a form that is agreed with the CCCS. Responses to requests for information can be submitted to CCCS via email (30MB is the limit for an email to be accepted by our system), in electronic format via a disc (CD or DVD), or in a form that is agreed with the CCCS. The hard copy of the original documents are to be provided if requested by the CCCS.
   
   
2. All documents submitted to CCCS should be accompanied by a clear index for CCCS’s easy reference.
   
   
3. If files are password protected, please provide the relevant passwords.
   
   
4. File names are to be succinct and self-explanatory. They are not to contain any special characters such as ~, !, @, #, $, %, ^, &, *, (, and ).
   
   
5. All documents are to be in readable and searchable format. They should be in a format that is compatible with Microsoft Office or PDF.
   
   
6. Spreadsheets, charts and other digital source data files are, as far as possible, to be in a format that is compatible with Microsoft Excel.
   
   
7. Electronic signatures are acceptable insofar as they are made by the intended signatory. It is encouraged that the signature be made in a way that can be digitally or visually authenticated by the CCCS, e.g. digital signatures made using programs (such as Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word or DocuSign), or an image of a written signature. If the signature is difficult to authenticate, the document containing the signature must be sent from an email address that is clearly attributed to the signatory. Further proof to authenticate the signature is to be provided, if requested by the CCCS.

^[1] An “undertaking” means any person, being an individual, a body corporate, an unincorporated body of persons or any other entity, capable of carrying on commercial or economic activities relating to goods or services.