The Cartel Project is at the end of its formal Australian Research Council funding period, 2009-2011. While much of the research associated with Project will be ongoing, this website will not be updated.
The website serves as an archive of the Cartel Project and includes an Archive List of the documentary record of cartel criminalisation in Australia as a useful resource. The information on the website is current to December 2011.
On 26 June 2009 the long-awaited Trade Practices Amendment (Cartel Conduct and Other Measures) Act 2008 received Royal Assent and became law, introducing criminal offences and sanctions for cartel conduct. In line with an international movement towards tougher sanctions for serious cartel conduct, the Australian Government has introduced this measure on the basis that such conduct causes significant harm to Australia's economic and consumer welfare.
Criminalisation represents a major change in Australia's approach to cartel regulation consistent with global trends. This interdisciplinary empirical research project will investigate how and why criminalisation of serious cartel conduct has become bipartisan policy in Australia. It will assess the likely impact of criminalisation on deterrence and compliance with the law, and compare criminalisation policy and enforcement in the US and UK. It will make recommendations about the practical implementation of the criminal regime and draw broader conclusions about regulatory reform processes, the reasons for business compliance with the law, and the most effective approaches to enforcing business regulation generally. See more...
The people involved in the research Project are Associate Professor Caron Beaton-Wells, Associate Professor Fiona Haines, Professor Christine Parker and Professor David Round. The Research Assistant is Janette Nankivell. The research team members are individually recognised experts in their fields, including criminology and white collar crime, economics, competition law and regulatory theory and reform.
On this website you will find more detail about the Cartel Project, the people, project outputs, links to useful information and resources relevant to competition law and a link for you to contact us.