Australian Legal Research Guide
For more information on Australian legal research, see our research guides:
Commentary Quick Overview
Major Commentary Sources
Legal Encyclopedias
Legislation - Competition Law
The central piece of legislation for Australian competition law is the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). Note that it was previously named the 'Trade Practices Act 1974'. The name officially changed on 1 January 2011
Consumer Law
The full text of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is set out in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). Laws to apply the ACL as a law of each State and Territory have been enacted in all States and Territories. For transactions that occurred up to 31 December 2010, the previous national, State and Territory consumer laws will continue to apply.
Consumer Credit
Annotated Legislation
Annotated legislation materials are a good starting point for understanding the law. Note, that these resources may not always be current.
Selected Competition Law Cases
Case Citators
Search cases and find subsequent consideration of a particular case. Case citators also list parallel citations, litigation history, legislation and words and phrases judicially considered and cases cited. For Australian cases use:
Law Report Series
Please note that authorised reports should be used when citing cases.
See Authorised Law Report Research Guide for a list of authorised reports in Australia
Major Law Journal Databases
For more information on searching for journal articles see the
Australian Competition Law Journals
Other Competition Law Journals
Library Catalogue Search
Search Library Catalogue for books using Keyword search or Subject search. You can narrow your results to Online Books only, however, the number of Australian competition law books in ebook format is limited. See below for the relevant results for:
eBooks
You also can search across various Ebook platforms allowing you to search the full text of books. Click on the eBooks link on the left-hand side of the page to navigate to the eBook databases.
Selected Books on Australian Competition Law
Major Commonwealth Agencies
Major State and Territories Competition Agencies
Major States and Territories Consumer Agencies
Inquiries & Reports
Please note, the references provided are not exhaustive of all the inquiries, reports and guidelines of the competition authorities in Australia.
The Australian Competition Law website provides a list of inquiries and reports from 1976 including links to full text documents.
Merger Guidelines
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) Merger Guidelines were published November 2008 providing clarification on the assessments of acquisition under sections 50 and 50A of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (the Act) formerly the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth).
Other Guidelines
The Australian Competition Law website provides links to ACCC guidelines, including in relation to: