Australia

The Commission’s governing authority, referred to as the Commission, is an independent panel of seven expert regulatory officials who have been appointed by the Governor-General. The executive team is headed by the Chairperson, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, in tandem with Deputy Chairpersons Mick Keogh, dealing with agriculture, and Catriona Lowe, who deals with consumer protection. This team works in collaboration with four expert Commissioners: Anna Brakey, who specializes in infrastructure regulation; Ian Oppermann, an expert in technology and data management; Philip Williams AM, an expert in competition economics; and Luke Woodward, who is an expert in competition law. All these key individuals lead and oversee a large staff of about 1,500 public servants.

As the market regulator of the nation, the role of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) involves enforcement of competition and fair trade laws through the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. The main goal of the ACCC is to ensure that markets function for everybody by prosecuting business organizations engaged in anti-competitive conduct such as cartels, price fixing, and market power abuse while rigorously scrutinizing mergers to avoid monopolies. To protect consumers, the ACCC vigorously controls misleading and deceptive advertising, checks product safety, implements product recall campaigns nationally, and also detects scams through the National Anti-Scam Centre. Moreover, the commission regulates the essential services of the energy and communications industry and carries out market inquiries into important industries.