Bill will better protect community pharmacies: Guild

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has welcomed the introduction of the Trade Practices Amendment Legislation Bill 2008 to Federal Parliament, saying it will improve competition.

The Guild said the bill will strengthen the Trade Practices Act and help better protect small businesses, such as community pharmacies, from unfair and anti-competitive behaviour. The Guild hopes that the amendments will also have an impact in the area of retail tenancy.

"The Guild has long advocated for the Trade Practices Act to be strengthened to make it easier for small businesses to access a legal recourse for anti-competitive practices," acting Guild national president, Patrick Reid, said.

"Currently, our legal options in relation to unfair and anti-competitive practices are very limited. The high cost of taking legal action, coupled with confusion surrounding what it means to 'take advantage', and general difficulty in pursuing predatory pricing cases, mean current protections are fairly unhelpful to achieving practical results," Mr Reid said.

The Guild believes the proposed clarification of aspects of section 46 of the Act will assist small business operators by addressing some of these issues.

"In particular, the Guild is very supportive of the proposal to allow small businesses to take action against section 46 infringements in the Federal Magistrates Court. This court is considerably more affordable for small business operators and will provide a practical avenue to redress predatory behaviour," Mr Reid said.

"Likewise, we welcome the removal of the necessity to show recoupment in predatory pricing actions. We are also pleased that provisions relating to predatory pricing and below-cost selling have been retained in amended form.

"The Guild congratulates the Government for acknowledging the needs of small business in drafting these reforms, and we look forward to the passage of the bill through the Senate.

"With the Trade Practices Act strengthened, we also look forward to strong action from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in relation to unfair, anti-competitive and predatory behaviour," Mr Reid said.

2-Jul-2008