Greening Antitrust: Lessons from the ACCC’s Authorisation of a Recycling Co-Operation Agreement

Abstract

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, Authorisation AA1000476 of 4 September 2020, Battery Stewardship Council Climate change and other urgent environmental concerns have raised the question as to whether and how competition policy could contribute to tackle this intergenerational threat and, more specifically, whether competition enforcement should pursue, in any form,1 other goals beyond and alongside its core economic and market-efficiency objectives. Certain competition law regimes already enable their respective enforcement authorities to take into account broader ‘public interest’ goals when enforcing competition provisions, in particular when assessing forms of co-operation among competitors. Even in jurisdictions such as the EU where the room to consider broader public interest goals is currently limited, the debate has gained momentum in the wake of the European Green Deal. Certain national competition authorities, in particular in the Netherlands and in Greece, are at the forefront of this debate and have explored tools to...