Competition and Consumer Act - Australia

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      44ZI Failing to attend as a witness

      A person who is served, as prescribed, with a summons to appear as a witness before the Commission must not, without reasonable excuse:

      (a) fail to attend as required by the summons; or

      (b) fail to appear and report himself or herself from day to day unless excused, or released from further attendance, by a member of the Commission.

      Penalty: Imprisonment for 6 months.

      44ZJ Failing to answer questions etc.

      (1) A person appearing as a witness before the Commission must not, without reasonable excuse:

      (a) refuse or fail to be sworn or to make an affirmation; or

      (b) refuse or fail to answer a question that the person is required to answer by the Commission; or

      (c) refuse or fail to produce a document that he or she was required to produce by a summons under this Part served on him or her as prescribed.

      Penalty: Imprisonment for 6 months.

      (2) It is a reasonable excuse for the purposes of subsection (1) for an individual to refuse or fail to answer a question or produce a document on the ground that the answer or the production of the document might tend to incriminate the individual or to expose the individual to a penalty. This subsection does not limit what is a reasonable excuse for the purposes of subsection (1).

      44ZK Intimidation etc.

      A person must not:

      (a) threaten, intimidate or coerce another person; or

      (b) cause or procure damage, loss or disadvantage to another person;

      because that other person:

      (c) proposes to produce, or has produced, documents to the Commission; or

      (d) proposes to appear or has appeared as a witness before the Commission.

      Penalty: Imprisonment for 12 months.

      44ZL Party may request Commission to treat material as confidential

      (1) A party to an arbitration hearing may:

      (a) inform the Commission that, in the party’s opinion, a specified part of a document contains confidential commercial information; and

      (b) request the Commission not to give a copy of that part to another party.

      (2) On receiving a request, the Commission must:

      (a) inform the other party or parties that the request has been made and of the general nature of the matters to which the relevant part of the document relates; and

      (b) ask the other party or parties whether there is any objection to the Commission complying with the request.

      (3) If there is an objection to the Commission complying with a request, the party objecting may inform the Commission of its objection and of the reasons for it.

      (4) After considering:

      (a) a request; and

      (b) any objection; and

      (c) any further submissions that any party has made in relation to the request;

      the Commission may decide not to give to the other party or parties a copy of so much of the document as contains confidential commercial information that the Commission thinks should not be so given.

      44ZM Sections 18 and 19 do not apply to the Commission in an arbitration

      Sections 18 and 19 do not apply to the Commission, as constituted for an arbitration.

      44ZN Parties to pay costs of an arbitration

      The regulations may provide for the Commission to:

      (a) charge the parties to an arbitration for its costs in conducting the arbitration; and

      (b) apportion the charge between the parties.

      44ZNA Joint arbitration hearings

      Joint arbitration hearing

      (1) If:

      (a) the Commission is arbitrating 2 or more access disputes at a particular time; and

      (b) one or more matters are common to those disputes;

      the Chairperson may, by notice in writing, decide that the Commission must hold a joint arbitration hearing in respect of such of those disputes (the nominated disputes) as are specified in the notice.

      (2) The Chairperson may do so only if he or she considers this would be likely to result in the nominated disputes being resolved in a more efficient and timely manner.

      Consulting the parties

      (3) Before doing so, the Chairperson must give each party to the arbitration of each nominated dispute a notice in writing:

      (a) specifying what the Chairperson is proposing to do; and

      (b) inviting the party to make a written submission on the proposal to the Chairperson within 14 days after the notice is given.

      (4) The Chairperson must have regard to any submission so made in deciding whether to do so. He or she may have regard to any other matter he or she considers relevant.

      Directions to presiding member

      (5) The Chairperson may, for the purposes of the conduct of the joint arbitration hearing, give written directions to the member of the Commission presiding at the hearing.

      Constitution and procedure of Commission

      (6) Sections 44Z to 44ZN apply to the joint arbitration hearing in a corresponding way to the way in which they apply to a particular arbitration.

      Note: For example, the Chairperson would be required to nominate in writing 1 or more members of the Commission to constitute the Commission for the purposes of the joint arbitration hearing.

      Record of proceedings etc.

      (7) The Commission as constituted for the purposes of the joint arbitration hearing may have regard to any record of the proceedings of the arbitration of any nominated dispute.

      (8) The Commission as constituted for the purposes of the arbitration of each nominated dispute may, for the purposes of making a determination in relation to that arbitration:

      (a) have regard to any record of the proceedings of the joint arbitration hearing; and

      (b) adopt any findings of fact made by the Commission as constituted for the purposes of the joint arbitration hearing.

      Legislative Instruments Act

      (9) The following are not legislative instruments for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003:

      (a) a notice made under subsection (1);

      (b) a direction given under subsection (5).

      Subdivision DA

      Arbitration reports

      44ZNB Arbitration reports

      (1) The Commission must prepare a written report about a final determination it makes. It must publish, by electronic or other means, the report.

      (2) The report may include the whole or a part of the determination and the reasons for the determination or the part of the determination.

      Report must include certain matters

      (3) The report must set out the following matters:

      (a) the principles the Commission applied in making the determination;

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