What the ACCC does

  • We regulate some infrastructure services.
  • We monitor some other sectors.
  • We ensure compliance with industry specific laws for bulk water, energy and telecommunications.

What the ACCC can't do

  • We don’t decide which infrastructure services to regulate. The National Competition Council makes this decision.

On this page

About our role

The ACCC aims to protect consumers. We regulate to protect, strengthen and supplement competitive markets.

Competitive, informed and - when necessary - well-regulated markets lead to:

  • lower prices
  • better quality products and services
  • a wider variety of products and services to choose from.

Our regulatory functions

The ACCC has several regulatory functions in national infrastructure industries.

Our regulatory functions include:

  • deciding the access prices, terms and conditions for some nationally significant infrastructure services
  • monitoring and enforcing compliance with industry-specific laws for energy and telecommunications
  • monitoring and reporting on prices and quality of goods and services
  • helping stakeholders understand:
    • regulatory frameworks
    • the structure and operation of infrastructure markets
  • giving advice to government on regulation and competition.

Infrastructure services we regulate

We regulate certain infrastructure services. The National Competition Council decide what infrastructure services to regulate. They give their recommendations to the Minister for consideration.

List of infrastructure services we regulate

The infrastructure services we currently regulate include:

Sectors we monitor

As well as regulation, we also monitor some other sectors.

We carry out monitoring in sectors that:

  • have limited competition, or
  • are important to consumers.

Our monitoring activities include:

  • collecting data on prices, costs and profits
  • reporting our findings
  • overseeing prices for some services in sectors with limited competition.

List of sectors we monitor

We currently carry out monitoring in the following sectors:

Overseeing prices

We oversee prices for some services in sectors with limited competition.

We oversee prices for services in:

Ensuring compliance

We ensure compliance with industry specific laws in the following infrastructure based markets:

  • bulk water
  • energy
  • telecommunications.

Inquiries

In certain cases, the government may direct us to undertake inquiries.

The current infrastructure inquiries include the:

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