Northern Rivers Gestalt Institute Incorporated - s.87B undertaking

The Northern Rivers Gestalt Institute Incorporated (Northern Rivers Gestalt) offers courses in 'Gestalt' counselling. In late 2005, Steven Gunther, a Director of Northern Rivers Gestalt, sent an email to the directors of eight other Gestalt institutes seeking their agreement to collectively raise fees in contravention of section 45 of the TPA, which prohibits price fixing.

Northern Rivers Gestalt has co-operated with the ACCC's investigation, admitted the alleged conduct and offered court-enforceable undertakings to address the ACCC's concerns. The Northern Rivers Gestalt Institute has undertaken that it will:

• not enter into, or attempt to enter into any agreements with its competitors about the prices to be charged for the provision of Gestalt training services;
• write to all the parties who received the email in which the attempted price fix was communicated to retract its contents; and
• implement a trade practices compliance program in which the director of the Norther Rivers Gestalt Institute who sent the email will attend trade practices compliance training.