Obtaining successful collective bargaining notification with ACCC

Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) is the industry association for Australia’s customer owned banking institutions. COBA lodged a notification for collective bargaining to the ACCC on 6 September 2024, on behalf of a subset of its members which are part of the Mutual Support Network (MSN), a collective of small customer-owned banking organisations.

From time to time, MSN members require the acquisition of various third party goods and/or services for the operation of their respective businesses. Given the relatively low value of these goods and services, MSN members ordinarily engage a third party procurement services provider to negotiate the acquisition of the goods and services.

MSN members would frequently obtain largely similar goods and services from the same third parties. However, given the competition law restrictions, would need to procure the goods and services separately.

To allow MSN members to jointly procure such goods and services, Piper Alderman advised on and assisted with the obtaining of a successful collective bargaining notification with the ACCC.

Piper Alderman provided initial advice to COBA on the process and requirements for filing and obtaining a collective bargaining notification. Piper Alderman subsequently assisted COBA with preparing the collective bargaining notification, including liaising with the ACCC.

The collective bargaining notification sought and applied for was unique in that it did not specifically target a particular supplier or a particular good or service. Rather, the collective bargaining notification was for a range of goods and services with the target supplier being any potential supplier of the applicable goods and services. This was very different to standard collective bargaining notifications which are much more confined to particular goods and services and a named supplier of those goods and services.

Given the broadness of the collective bargaining notification being sought, the notification required detailed consideration of the relevant competition law tests and to make the decision making process for the ACCC as simple as possible. Piper Alderman was able to work collaboratively with the ACCC to ensure appropriate detail and explanation for why the notification should be granted was presented.

Piper Alderman successfully obtained collective bargaining notification for COBA. The collective bargaining notification will remain in force for a period of 5 years and allow MSN members to collectively bargain without the risk of breaching the competition law.