The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today issued its guide on the resolution of telecommunications access disputes. The guide describes the ACCC's powers, and its approach to exercising these powers, in relation to resolving telecommunications access disputes.
Release of the guide follows a period of public consultation on a draft of the guide. The ACCC has also released a discussion of its response to issues raised by submissions on the draft guide.
"The timely resolution of telecommunications access disputes continues to be of critical importance to the development of competition in the telecommunications industry", ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
Providing guidance to industry on the ACCC's approach to dispute resolution is important regardless of the current level of access disputes before the ACCC. International, as well as recent domestic, experience indicates that further disputes are likely to arise in the future.
"The guide incorporates incremental changes to the ACCC's process, consolidating the lessons learned by the ACCC in conducting telecommunications arbitrations since 1997, legislative changes to the access regime, and the key findings of an independent review by Phillips Fox and Resolve Advisors of the ACCC's processes for handling telecommunications access disputes", Professor Fels said.
The ACCC is also seeking further industry comment on a proposed 'standard form' confidentiality undertaking for arbitration processes.
"The release of the proposed confidentiality undertaking in draft form allows for industry consultation on the undertaking that the ACCC will use when sharing 'confidential' information between the parties in dispute. Disputes, between the parties to an arbitration, about the nature and extent of such undertakings have previously contributed to delays in the completion of arbitrations".
The ACCC has called for comments by 31 October 2002. Once submissions have been considered, the ACCC will finalise the undertaking and release it as an addendum to the guide.