The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (‘ACCC’) released new merger assessment guidelines in June 2025. This is the first major update to the guidelines since 2008 and comes at a time when other international competition authorities are consulting on new merger guidelines.
In a recent LexisNexis article, RBB’s Chris Hart
Chris HartPrincipal and Chris Whelan
Chris WhelanPrincipal provide economic commentary on the ACCC merger assessment guidelines. They summarise what the latest assessment guidelines cover, which reflects an expanding scope of enforcement through, inter alia, the assessment of so-called ‘serial acquisitions’, the reference to structural presumptions, potential additional ‘entrenchment’ theories of harm, and a potentially broader approach to assessing conglomerate effects.
This article, ‘The ACCC’s 2025 merger assessment guidelines: Expanding the scope of enforcement (2026) 32 CCLJ 68’ was published in LexisNexis. Subscribers can read the full article here.
