Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative Limited & Dairy Farmers Pty Ltd - Authorisation - A91364

On 8 March 2013 Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative Limited (DFMC) and Dairy Farmers Pty Ltd (Dairy Farmers Pty Ltd is referred to below as Lion ) lodged an application for re-authorisation (application for revocation and substitution). The application relates to the "Back to Back Arrangements" set out in clauses 4.4, 4.6.2 and 5.6 of the Milk Supply Agreement.

Back to Back Arrangements refer to back to back milk purchasing policies and back to back milk pricing arrangements between DFMC, DFMC members and Lion. The applicants state that the Back to Back Arrangements mean that:

- DFMC must adopt the same milk purchasing policy (including price structure) in relation to its acquisition of milk from its members as Lion applies to its purchase of milk from DFMC (clause 4.4)
- DFMC must sell milk it acquires from farm members to Lion on the same terms and conditions relating to payment, pricing, collection and quality as contained in its farmer contracts (clause 4.6.2) and
- DFMC must adopt the same milk price in relation to the purchase by DFMC from its farmer suppliers of milk as DFMC receives from Lion for the milk it sells to Lion (clause 5.6).

On 3 July 2013, the ACCC released a determination granting authorisation for 10 years.