The Business Council of Australia (BCA) welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to Treasury's consultation on the Exposure draft of Competition and Consumer (Notification of Acquisitions) Determination 2025. These legislative instruments will support the commencement of voluntary notification of mergers and acquisitions to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) from 1 July 2025 and mandatory notifications from January 2026.

The BCA represents and advocates for its members, who comprise more than 130 of Australia's largest and most significant employers. We are a member-led organisation, and our submissions are the result of the engagement with those members, and the expertise and practical experience they share with us.

From the outset of consultations on merger reform, we have consistently recognised the importance of providing the ACCC with greater visibility into mergers and acquisitions to effectively investigate potential competition concerns. The proactive approach of both the Treasury and the ACCC in engaging with the business community throughout this consultation process is important to ensure the reforms balance policy objectives with efficient governance and implementation. Together with our members, we remain committed to contributing to the successful implementation of these reforms and will provide input on necessary adjustments during the initial implementation phase.

With the enactment of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Mergers and Acquisitions Reform) Act 2024 late last year, we acknowledge that the current consultation is focused not on the government's overarching reform policy, but rather on the specific details of the legislative instruments to support the reforms. Consequently, this submission does not revisit previous discussions regarding the broader reforms. Instead, it addresses specific issues in the exposure draft.

The design and effective execution of the merger reforms is critically important to avoid any negative externalities that may impact economic growth, market dynamism and new opportunities to innovate and invest. These regulations must support the intent of the reforms, delivering a well-functioning regime that will foster confidence in investing in Australia with appropriate guardrails to prevent the degradation of competition. A poorly functioning regime will lead to a loss of confidence to invest in Australia, increase regulatory and transactional complexity, and limit Australia's economic growth.

These regulations should be amended in line with our recommendations to ensure they are more closely aligned to commercial realities and international standards, simpler to understand and implement, and more closely aligned to a risk-based approach to enable the ACCC to focus on the major competition risks rather than low risk transactions.

This submission only provides commentary on the exposure draft released on 28 March 2025. We note that there remain significant gaps in the draft, including Part 4, Division 1 - Notification of waiver applications; Division 2 - Waiver determination; Part 5, Division 1 - Contents of the register; Part 6, Division 1 - Public benefit form; and Part 7, Division - 2, Tribunal review.

Read the full submission here.