Enforcement and Remedies

Abstract

This chapter examines the range of remedies and the approach to public and private enforcement of the Commerce Act 1986. Over time, the need for private antitrust suits has become even more pressing as the Commission’s workload has expanded greatly. The “light-handed” regulation experiment proved disastrous, and thus the revival of industry-specific regulation was added to the Commission’s duties. The early years were marked by very lenient penalties because judges were sympathetic to businesses falling afoul of the Act. It took the better part of 20 years for tougher deterrent penalties to be realized. The significantly higher penalties introduced in 2001 were the signal for the courts to belatedly give the Act more “bite,” and so it has proved. This chapter also surveys injunctions, damages, and the ill-fated cease and desist orders. After a protracted gestation, the legislature recently introduced the criminalization of cartel conduct.