{"id":1923,"date":"2022-08-17T18:22:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T22:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2022-08-17T18:22:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T22:22:32","slug":"australian-waste-management-company-pleads-guilty-to-and-former-ceo-charged-with-criminal-price-fixing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/17\/australian-waste-management-company-pleads-guilty-to-and-former-ceo-charged-with-criminal-price-fixing\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Waste Management Company Pleads Guilty to, and Former CEO Charged with, Criminal Price-Fixing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Jonathan J. Rusch<\/p>\n<p>Since Australia first criminalized cartel conduct in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.au\/Details\/C2017C00369\">Competition and Consumer Act 2010<\/a> (CCA), its progress in successfully bringing criminal cartel charges against companies or individuals has been slow and at times tortuous. As of July 2022, there had been only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cliffordchance.com\/content\/dam\/cliffordchance\/briefings\/2022\/07\/cartels-update-july-2022.pdf\">four matters<\/a> that resulted in criminal convictions for cartel behavior in Australia, and in those matters all defendants had pleaded guilty to the offense.\u00a0 In one 2019 case \u2013 the <a href=\"https:\/\/globalcompetitionreview.com\/review\/the-asia-pacific-antitrust-review\/2022\/article\/australia-overview\">first contested criminal prosecution<\/a> under the CCA\u2019s criminal cartel provisions \u2013 two former corporate executives were acquitted of price fixing and bid rigging.\u00a0 Not until June 2022 did the Australian Federal Court impose the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au\/judgments\/Judgments\/fca\/single\/2022\/2022fca0665\">prison sentences<\/a> for criminal cartel conduct.<\/p>\n<p>During 2022, however, the Australian Competition &amp; Consumer Commission (ACCC), which investigates criminal and civil violations of the cartel provisions, has been seeking to demonstrate that, as then-ACCC Chair Rod Sims <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accc.gov.au\/speech\/acccs-enforcement-and-compliance-policy-update-2022-23\">stated<\/a>, cartel conduct is \u201ca critical component\u201d of the ACCC\u2019s competition portfolio, \u201cand an enduring priority.\u201d\u00a0 As of March 2022, the ACCC reportedly had six cartel matters before the Federal Court and additional investigations underway.<\/p>\n<p>Most recently, on August 16, the ACCC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accc.gov.au\/media-release\/bingo-industries-pleads-guilty-to-alleged-demolition-waste-cartel\">announced<\/a> that an Australian waste company, Bingo Industries, had entered guilty pleas to criminal cartel offences relating to price fixing for demolition waste services in Sydney.\u00a0 Bingo \u2013 now owned by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets &#8212; provides landfill, waste processing, and skip bins [i.e., dumpsters] services throughout the states of New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland.<\/p>\n<p>According to the ACCC, in mid-2019, Bingo \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.accc.gov.au\/media-release\/bingo-industries-pleads-guilty-to-alleged-demolition-waste-cartel\">agreed<\/a> with [two competing firms] to fix and increase prices for the supply of skip bins and the provision of waste processing services for building and demolition waste in Sydney.\u201d\u00a0 In addition, the former managing director and CEO of Bingo, Daniel Tartak, has been charged with two criminal cartel offences.\u00a0 These charges will be heard at a future date by the Federal Court.<\/p>\n<p>At present, there is no indication of the penalties that the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP), which is responsible for prosecuting criminal cartel offenses, will seek from the Federal Court against Bingo. \u00a0Under the CCA, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accc.gov.au\/media-release\/bingo-industries-pleads-guilty-to-alleged-demolition-waste-cartel\">maximum fine<\/a> for each criminal cartel offense by a corporate entity is the greater of (1) AUS$10 million, (2) three times the total benefit obtained and that is reasonably attributable to the commission of the offense, or (3) if the value of the benefit obtained cannot be determined, 10 per cent of the corporation\u2019s annual turnover connected with Australia.\u00a0 The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of a criminal cartel offence is 10 years\u2019 imprisonment, a fine of AUS$444,000, or both.\u00a0 The Federal Court has not yet set a date for a case management hearing.<\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan J. Rusch is Principal of DTG Risk &amp; Compliance LLC and Adjunct Professor at American University Washington College of Law and Georgetown University Law Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Jonathan J. Rusch Since Australia first criminalized cartel conduct in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA), its progress in successfully bringing criminal cartel charges against companies or individuals has been slow and at times tortuous. As of July 2022, there had been only four matters that resulted in criminal convictions for cartel behavior [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,248],"tags":[325,324,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-1923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-comparativecriminallaw","7":"category-comparativecriminalprocedure","8":"tag-australian-competition-consumer-commission-accc","9":"tag-cartels","10":"tag-competition-and-anti-trust","11":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Australian Waste Management Company Pleads Guilty to, and Former CEO Charged with, Criminal Price-Fixing | IELR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/17\/australian-waste-management-company-pleads-guilty-to-and-former-ceo-charged-with-criminal-price-fixing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australian Waste Management Company Pleads Guilty to, and Former CEO Charged with, Criminal Price-Fixing | IELR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Jonathan J. Rusch Since Australia first criminalized cartel conduct in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA), its progress in successfully bringing criminal cartel charges against companies or individuals has been slow and at times tortuous. 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