Collective bargaining class exemption guidelines

These guidelines provide information about the ACCC’s class exemption for collective bargaining.

Smaller businesses, including farmers, can sometimes benefit from negotiating with their customers or suppliers as a group (referred to as collective bargaining). Working together, they may be able to negotiate more efficiently with larger businesses, and achieve better terms and conditions, than they can on their own.

However, without some form of legal protection, this kind of joint bargaining would be at risk of breaching competition laws.

The ACCC has made a class exemption which allows eligible businesses to collectively bargain without the risk of breaching the competition laws.