About the centre

Introduction | Aims

About the centre

Introduction

The Centre for Competition and Consumer Policy (CCCP) has been established to expand understanding of how and why compliance arises in the regulation of competition and consumer policy; and how to improve the effectiveness of national and international competition regulation in global markets. A specialized research unit, the Centre brings together academics from economics, law, sociology, social psychology, geography and public administration backgrounds as well as non-academic experts, to engage in research on compliance, globalisation and its impact on issues such as international cartels, standard setting, consumer guarantees, parallel importing and intellectual property rights. The work of the Centre examines national competition and consumer policy through the lens of the internationalisation of trade and the implications this has for the direction of policy formation, policy implementation and enforcement. It will examine the needs, values, attitudes and behaviour of:

those subject to competition policy, from multinationals through to small local businesses;
consumers who are the ultimate beneficiaries of an effective competition and consumer policy regime; and
those responsible for its implementation and enforcement (the ACCC and, to a limited degree, other competition agencies such as those located in the US and the EU).

The Centre represents a three-to-six year research partnership between the Australian National University and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The Centre is established as part of the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), a network of regulatory researchers coordinated through the Research School of Social Sciences in the Institute of Advanced Studies of the University.

Aims

Under the partnership arrangement, the work of the Centre, in developing a deeper and more systemic understanding of competition and consumer compliance has three main aims:

to improve the effectiveness and coherence of the competition and consumer policy
to improve the ACCC's compliance management strategies and processes
to contribute internationally to scholarship in the field of regulation.

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