Government Business Relations - Essay Example

Effectiveness of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in regulating both competition and consumer protection Department: Course name: August 21, 2014 Effectiveness of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in regulating both competition and consumer protection Introduction The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) seek to promote competition and fair trade in Australian markets (Australian Government 2014, p.1). Promoting competition in the markets leads to economic efficiency, while fair trade ensures that producers and consumers’ interests are considered.

Effective implementation of these activities ensures consumers’ protection from exploitation that could harm the consumers’ economic welfare. Inefficiency in carrying out the operations could, however lead to exploitation in the markets. This discussion analyses effectiveness of this body, in conducting its operations in the Australian market, through exploration of different industries in Australia and operations within the commission’s mandate. The Mobile phones industry Functions of consumer protection involve ensuring that consumers access various goods and services at reasonable prices.

The ACCC seeks ‘to promote competitive pricing wherever possible and to restrain price rises in markets where competition is less than effective’ (Center for International Legal Studies 2014, cxxi). Considering the mobile phones industry in Australia, the mobile operators charge high prices, against each other, when their consumers make calls or send messages across the different networks. This increases charges on the consumers, or reduced unit utility across networks, hinders competition, and limits consumers’ benefit from the services.

An effective regulation authority, however, promotes fair prices, compared to what other markets charge consumers for similar goods and services and this offers a benchmark for evaluating the commission’s effectiveness. A recent report by Cheer (2014, p.1) shows that the ACCC has responded to this situation. The authority continues to seek better prices for Australian consumers. This follows their efforts geared at finding options that could be used to reduce the costs charged when making calls in the country.

The options being developed consider the charges imposed on consumers in other countries, such as the UK and China. This means that the body plays an important role in protecting its consumers as the efforts translate to greater affordability of the service for more people, and promotes fair trade practices. The Aeronautical Industry According to Halpern and Graham (2013, p.156), airports in many countries possess a monopolistic position in their operations. This follows the excessive demand for airport services, compared to the supply potential, especially during the peak seasons.

Such monopolistic power makes the airport authorities to charge high prices for the services they offer. These prices make it hard for consumers to enjoy the services without putting a strain on their financial lives. The ACCC plays an active role in regulating the way airports conduct their operations in Australia. The airports, for example, apply to this authority before increasing the prices they charge to consumers for their services. An investment in an airport, for instance, would necessitate an increase in the prices charged to consumers, thus covering the additional costs of the activity.

Consequent to such practices, the airport authorities do not possess the freedom to increase their prices independently. Instead, the ACCC serves as the authority, which assesses the amount of investment applied, hence the corresponding cost of capital to be applied (Winston & Rus 2008, p.83). This practice ensures that the management of the airports does not exploit consumers, by charging them more. Consequently, consumers enjoy the services at fair prices, thus safeguarding their economic well being.

The scam project In the year 2012, ACCC received 83, 803 scam-related contacts from customers and small businesses in Australia (“Australian Institute of Criminology” 2014, p.1). Such scams results in losses to the consumers, as well as the economy. Scam watch (2014, p.1) estimates the losses at one billion dollars, which means that scams cause unwarranted economic hardships. Smith, Zhang and Barberet, (2011, p.146) indicate that the development of the internet serves as one of the major ways that have led to an increase in consumer scams.

Therefore, providing consumers with a facility that promotes their awareness of the different ways that can be used to deceive them can be of great significance. Given that scams dominate the Australian market the ACCC continues to develop various ways of helping consumers to trade fairly in the Australian market. One of the channels involves alerting consumers of the different ways that dishonest business people use to exploit them. The project is known as the ACCC scam disruption project. It aims at detecting the various ways used to deceive consumers, disrupting the scams, as well as disabling the ability of the frauds.

It communicates with consumers, through a website, which ensures that most consumers access the information at any time (Gregory & Glance 2013, p.66). Consumers also get to report any scams they encounter to ACCC, thus helping to expose any forms of scams. More to these, the project covers most industries in the market, ranging from the online industry, the health industry, employment industry, among many other sectors. Concern for small firms The ACCC does not concentrate in promoting fair practices for large and established businesses.

It also seeks to promote the interests of small businesses. One of the ways the authority achieves this includes the requirement of the body to have a deputy chair who possesses sufficient knowledge, or experience in the matters of small businesses (Schaper 2010, p.11). Such a prominent person in the body ensures that the small businesses get considered in matters relating to competition. Consequent to this, the small businesses sector acquires a stable market position, leading to fair competition in Australian markets.

Conclusion In conclusion, the above discussion highlights the many ways that the Australian competition and consumer commission uses to foster fair competition in the Australian market. The commission ensures that small businesses access the markets, given that the leaders of the authority possess knowledge of the small industries sector. The discussion also sheds lights on the various ways that the authority uses to protect its consumers from exploitation. Therefore, the commission serves its regulatory functions in an efficient manner as the mentioned practices depict.

References List Australian Government 2014, ‘Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’. Retrieved 22 August 2014, Australian Institute of Criminology 2014, ‘Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce Survey 2014’, retrieved 22 August 2014, Center for International Legal Studies 2014, International Consumer Protection, Juris Publishing, Huntington. Cheer, L 2014, ‘Cheaper Calls and Texts for Australian Mobile Phone Users as Watchdog Announces Review of Sky-High Tariffs.’ Mail Online, 02 August, p.

1, retrieved 22 August, 2014, Gregory, M, & Glance, D 2013, Security and the Networked Society, Springer International Publishing, New York. Halpern, N, & Graham, A 2013, Airport Marketing, Routledge Publishers, New York. Scamwatch 2014, ‘Global Scams Hit Australian’s Pockets – Losses at 1 Billion Dollars’, retrieved 22 August 2014, Schaper, M 2010, ‘Competition law, enforcement and the Australian small business sector’, Small Enterprise Research, 17, 1, pp. 7-18. Smith, C, Zhang, S & Barberet, R 2011, Routledge Handbook of International Criminology, Routledge Publishers, Oxon.

Winston, C & Rus, G 2008, Aviation Infrastructure Performance: A Study in Comparative Political Economy. The Brookings Institution, Washington.