Projects

Project 1 | Project 2 | Project 3

Project 1

The ACCC Enforcement and Compliance Survey: Report of Preliminary Findings can be downloaded from here

Evaluating the effectiveness of ACCC compliance and enforcement activity

First Preliminary Research Report can be downloaded from here

ACCC Enforcement and Compliance Project Working Paper on ACCC Compliance Education and Liaison Strategies can be downloaded from here

ACCC Enforcement and Compliance Working Paper on The Impact of ACCC Enforcement Activity in Cartel Cases can be downloaded here

The Impact of Competition Regulation on Australian Business: National Benchmark Study Survey can be downloaded here

Purpose and benefits

This is an evaluative project where quantitative and qualitative research methods will be applied to assess the compliance impact of different enforcement and compliance strategies used by the ACCC. The impact on business actors in different sectors and markets, of different sizes and in different locations will be evaluated.

The aim is to provide a better understanding of the impact of enforcement methods and other ACCC activities on compliance behaviour, including unintended consequences, if any.

The project will provide performance information on the effectiveness of the ACCC's compliance and enforcement activities. The results will contribute to the ACCC's report requirements on the effectiveness of its work.

Methodologies

In the first phase, qualitative interviews will be conducted with ACCC staff and experienced trade practices lawyers to identify significant cases of ACCC enforcement and compliance activity, and the strategies used in those cases. Senior officers of companies that have been the subject of ACCC compliance and enforcement efforts in recent years will be then interviewed. Companies will be selected purposively to include the most likely successful cases, the most likely cases of major failure and some cases where no one knows whether the work has been successful or not (and where it might be particularly instructive to find out). Changes in the nature of the relevant markets will be also examined quantitatively and qualitatively.

The second phase of the project will centre on a quantitative survey. Approximately 200 entities will be included, about 100 that have been subject to ACCC enforcement action over the previous 5 years and matched controls of 100 which have not (matched by size, product/service, location (multinational/Australian, urban/rural), form of business (franchise/partnership/company). A questionnaire will be sent to the senior legal or trade practices compliance officer of the entity. Information would also be coded from the annual reports of the companies and from compliance program documentation. Perceptual deterrence, trust in the ACCC, defiance and resistance to ACCC enforcement, perceptions of ACCC procedural fairness, cooperativeness, belief in the value of the TPA, commitment to invest in internal compliance systems and self-reported compliance will be measured (at a firm and industry level).

Expected outputs

Qualitative and quantitative surveys results, analysis and report presented verbally and in writing to the ACCC and academic publications.

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