Tom Macken works in Bird & Bird’s Competition and Commercial Group in Sydney, advising the clients on a broad range of competition, commercial and regulatory matters. As a junior associate, he has worked across a number of the firm’s practice areas and key sectors. As a paralegal, he worked in the Intellectual Property, Competition and Corporate & Commercial Groups, advising on various trade mark and IP protection issues and competition and consumer law matters, and assisting with large-scale corporate transactional and advisory matters. His current practice focuses mainly on advising clients in the communications and technology sector, as well as the sports and media sector. Some of his more recent experience includes advising clients in the telecommunications and IT industry, particularly in relation to satellite and telecommunications regulatory issues, access regulation, trends and commercial opportunities, and the regulation of new technologies and services. He has also provided advice to clients in the sports and media sector in relation to a range of commercial and regulatory issues, including sports governance, sponsorship rights and agreements and anti-corruption matters. Before joining Bird & Bird, he worked at one of Australia’s largest television networks and interned at a commercial and humanitarian law firm, as well as at Australia’s national human rights institution.
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On 4 February 2021, the Federal Court of Australia imposed a fine of $24 million on Norwegian shipping company, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Ocean AS (WWO), for its involvement in a criminal cartel with a number of other shipping companies between 2009 and 2012. More specifically, the Federal Court (...)
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In a recent speech provided to the Law Council of Australia Business Law Section’s Competition and Consumer Workshop, the Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Rod Sims, confirmed that the ACCC will be putting forward ideas for changes to Australia’s merger laws (...)
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently entered into a new memorandum of understanding with its counterpart competition agencies from five other countries in order to share intelligence and investigate techniques to better coordinate competition investigations across (...)
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Australia’s competition and consumer regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), recently decided to take action against Google LLC (Google) in relation to allegations that it misled consumers about the collection and use of their personal information online, including, (...)
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On 18 June 2020, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released its Statement of Issues in relation to Google LLC’s proposed acquisition of Fitbit, expressing its concerns that the acquisition may further entrench Google’s dominant position in the supply of data-dependent (...)
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Due to the rapidly changing global landscape, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced on 27 March 2020 a "re-focus" of its 2020 Compliance and Enforcement Priorities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While it has not explicitly revoked its existing priorities, which we (...)
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The ACCC has now commenced an inquiry into the digital advertising technology supply chain and advertising agency services in Australia, releasing an issues paper encouraging interested stakeholders (including advertisers and ad hosts) to provide their feedback on key issues affecting the (...)
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The ACCC has decided not to appeal the Federal Court of Australia’s highly anticipated judgment in the TPG/Vodafone merger in which it declared that the proposed merger between the two parties would not have the effect, or likely effect, of substantially lessening competition in the supply of (...)
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In December 2019, the Federal Court ordered the German car manufacturer, Volkswagen AG, to pay AUD$125 million in penalties for engaging in a breach of Australia’s consumer law (the Australian Consumer Law ("ACL")) by making false representations relating to its compliance with Australian diesel (...)
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In October 2019, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (“ACCC") decided to take action against Google LLC and Google Australia Pty Ltd (collectively, "Google") in the Federal Court of Australia for allegedly engaging in misleading conduct and making false or misleading (...)
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In our August update , we discussed the proceedings that had been commenced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in the Federal Court of Australia against BlueScope Steel Limited (BlueScope) and its former General Manager of Sales and Marketing, Mr Jason Ellis, for (...)
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In August 2019, Australia’s competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ("ACCC") commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against BlueScope Steel Limited ("BlueScope") and its former General Manager of Sales and Marketing, Mr Jason Ellis, for alleged (...)
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On 2 August 2019, the Federal Court of Australia imposed its largest ever fine on Japanese shipping company, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (K-Line), for engaging in price fixing as part of an illegal criminal cartel with a number of other shipping companies between 2009 and 2012. The fine of (...)
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In mid-2019, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ("ACCC") released its final report in the landmark Digital Platforms Inquiry ("Final Report"), in which it recommended, amongst other things, amendments to section 50(3) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), which forms (...)
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In May 2019, Australia’s competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), secured two significant victories in the Federal Court against airlines, one for misleading conduct against Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd (Jetstar) in relation to its refund practices, and one (...)
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In May 2019, Australia’s competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), secured two significant victories in the Federal Court against airlines, one for misleading conduct against Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd (Jetstar) in relation to its refund practices, and one (...)
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On the 8th of May, 2019, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) officially announced that it had decided to oppose the proposed merger between TPG Telecom Limited (TPG), a supplier of retail fixed broadband and voice services and the owner of an extensive fibre network in (...)
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In April 2019, Australia’s competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ("ACCC"), entered into a Memorandum of Cooperation ("MoC") with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") in order to enhance its efforts in detecting, investigating and (...)
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On 29 March 2019, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (“ACCC”) published the draft Competition and Consumer (Consumer Data) Rules 2019 (the “Draft Rules”). The Draft Rules set out how the Consumer Data Right (the “CDR”) will be implemented, and how it will operate in practice. The CDR (...)
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In July 2018, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (“ACCC”) brought its first gun jumping cartel case against Cryosite Limited (“Cryosite”). Gun jumping occurs when parties to a merger or acquisition coordinate their activities prior to the completion of their transaction. This (...)
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On 20 December 2018, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission ("ACCC") published guidelines on collective bargaining for small businesses, including agribusinesses ("Guidelines"). Whilst collective bargaining can generally lead to more efficient negotiations, better access to (...)
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