The force behind competition queen Gina Cass-Gottlieb

Gina Cass-Gottlieb isn’t what astir Australians would envisage erstwhile asked to picture an “enforcer”. She is flimsy successful stature, with thick, agelong achromatic hair, and a calm, watchful demeanour. However, the 63-year-old Cass-Gottlieb commands 1 of the astir important roles successful the nation, a relation that has earned her immoderate enemies, but an adjacent bigger radical of admirers.

Cass-Gottlieb’s job, arsenic seat of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, is to equilibrium the competing interests of concern and consumers. Those interests person go opposed amid a cost-of-living situation arsenic consumers person go acutely delicate to terms hikes connected mundane goods and services, with businesses nether unit to warrant them.

The caller feisty national Senate enquiry examining the marketplace powerfulness of Coles and Woolworths was grounds of specified angst.

For our meal interview, Cass-Gottlieb has picked bills cafe successful the inner-city Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst.

We’re present to sermon her bonzer career, which diverged from aboriginal plans of becoming a doctor, similar her father, into becoming the country’s starring contention lawyer. All stories person turning points, and we’ll travel to Cass-Gottlieb’s. Although I’m fascinated to larn that she did person an aboriginal apprenticeship successful medicine, of sorts, with her father, Cecil Cass, who was an orthopaedic surgeon.

Cecil would often inquire Gina, his eldest child, to be his surgeries and photograph the wounds helium was operating connected truthful that helium could usage the slides aboriginal to thatch students. There would besides beryllium the occasional slideshow astatine the household meal table. Medicine ran successful the family. Cecil’s brother, Moss Cass, was besides a doctor, and aboriginal became a Whitlam authorities minister.

When I get astatine bills, Cass-Gottlieb is already seated connected a tobacco-coloured banquette. This light-filled and airy cafe, which opened 3 decades ago, is simply a Sydney institution, which is wherefore Cass-Gottlieb has chosen it. “Bills is simply a quintessential portion of Sydney. When I person household oregon friends visiting I marque definite they person meal here. They ever retrieve it.”

Cass-Gottlieb is simply a instrumentality of the precocious Bill Granger’s recipes too, which she describes arsenic elemental to marque and ever filled with terrific, caller produce.

Cass-Gottlieb learnt to navigator from an aboriginal age, erstwhile she was sometimes liable for household dinners erstwhile some her parents worked late. Her parent Bettina Cass, a sociology professor, helped signifier societal information argumentation during the Hawke government, and was aboriginal a dean of arts astatine the University of Sydney.

‘It was conscionable truly wide that if you didn’t recognize economics, you didn’t recognize authorities and the world.’

Our speech turns to contention law, specifically astir mergers. Cass-Gottlieb admits contention instrumentality is simply a small nerdy, but her involvement successful it grew from a tendency to practise astatine the intersection of economics and law. It was Dame Roma Mitchell, Australia’s archetypal pistillate Supreme Court justice, who planted the effect of Cass-Gottlieb becoming a lawyer. Mitchell made this proposition erstwhile awarding Cass-Gottlieb a prize astatine an Australian High Schools Debating championship.

When Cass-Gottlieb applied to assemblage successful the 1970s she decided to harvester instrumentality with economics. “It was conscionable truly wide that if you didn’t recognize economics, you didn’t recognize authorities and the world.” After completing her economics instrumentality degree, she became an subordinate to Justice McHugh, past connected the NSW Court of Appeal. McHugh would aboriginal spell connected to articulation the High Court.

It was McHugh who suggested Cass-Gottlieb proceed her studies successful the United States. She won a Fulbright assistance to University of California Berkeley to bash a masters successful contention instrumentality and fiscal strategy and services regulation.

She completed 2 theses during her studies: the archetypal connected the past of workers compensation successful NSW; the different compared the federalist systems of the US and Australia.

Cass-Gottlieb’s vocation would see an aboriginal stint moving for Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst), and aboriginal successful the 1990s, she joined Gilbert + Tobin, founding the firm’s contention and regularisation group. There she often acted for large concern that recovered itself successful struggle with the ACCC – the precise regulator she present leads.

While contention tin beryllium nerdy, Cass-Gottlieb astatine times has attempted to present immoderate levity. While moving astatine Gilbert + Tobin, she appeared earlier the ACCC successful an online proceeding wearing her son’s Liverpool shot jersey, drafting immoderate bemused glances. Gilbert + Tobin was having a “jersday Thursday”.

In backstage signifier Cass-Gottlieb acted successful contention cases and successful different matters, including for billionaire Lachlan Murdoch.Credit: The New York Times

In backstage practice, Cass-Gottlieb not lone represented clients successful contention cases but different matters, including acting connected behalf of Lachlan Murdoch successful the spot that managed the Murdoch’s family’s multibillion-dollar shareholdings successful Fox and News Corp.

Cass-Gottlieb made the modulation from the backstage to the nationalist assemblage 2 years agone erstwhile she became seat of the ACCC. The thread of “service” that runs done her extended household partially helps explicate that transition.

It’s not her lone nationalist work role. She’s besides serving a 3rd word arsenic subordinate connected the Reserve Bank’s Payments Systems board. The board’s relation is to power hazard successful Australia’s fiscal system, and guarantee its competitiveness and efficiency.

Cass-Gottlieb says her existent roles person her “working harder than I’ve ever worked”, to which she rapidly adds: “I’m precise blessed to beryllium doing so. It’s necessary.”

Scoreboard

Last month, the national authorities announced the astir important changes successful 50 years to how mergers tin hap successful Australia. The changes supply a much stringent cheque connected large companies seeking to swallow rivals and frankincense get bigger and much powerful.

The reforms springiness Cass-Gottlieb, who’s the archetypal pistillate seat of the ACCC, and a parent of 2 and grandmother, an adjacent bigger instrumentality to wield successful enforcing the law.

“We deliberation the bundle arsenic a whole, peculiarly wherever we get those 2 trial clarifications successful narration to marketplace powerfulness and serial acquisitions, volition let america to bash the occupation that the Australian nationalist wants america to bash and needs america to do.

‘We present request to bash the enactment to question higher penalties.’

“We’re vigilantly acting successful the community’s interests, and that requires moving astatine gait and strongly.”

The archetypal change, which is expected to travel into effect successful aboriginal 2026, means that mergers supra a definite value, and which would importantly fortify oregon entrench marketplace power, volition request to beryllium notified to the ACCC and necessitate support earlier proceeding.

Currently, businesses don’t person to notify the ACCC oregon hold for the regulator’s presumption earlier completing a merger, which made Australia an outlier among developed nations.

The adjacent important alteration was that the ACCC tin see serial acquisitions erstwhile reviewing deals, and see them unneurotic successful determining a notification threshold.

It allows for a crackdown connected companies that person been swallowing up smaller rivals nether the radar, and which aboriginal look with a almighty marketplace position, specified arsenic what occurred erstwhile Petstock became the second-largest favored retailer successful the country, aft gobbling up galore autarkic favored stores.

Greater attraction among companies tin pb to higher prices and little prime for consumers, arsenic good arsenic occupation losses. For the economy, it tin mean little maturation if companies, arsenic a result, go little innovative and competitive.

The changes to merger instrumentality were a triumph for consumers, but not business. Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, erstwhile announcing the changes, credited Cass-Gottlieb’s relation successful getting merger betterment connected the nationalist agenda.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers credited Cass-Gottlieb’s relation successful getting merger betterment connected the nationalist agenda.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

While the strengthening of rules astir mergers was a triumph for Cass-Gottlieb and her squad of astir 1350 staff, it was the triumph against Qantas this past week that got much attention. The ACCC had earned itself a spot connected Qantas’ enemies database aft it accused the nationalist bearer of engaging successful misleading conduct.

The regulator had accused Qantas of selling tickets to customers connected tens of thousands flights that were already cancelled. Qantas settled the lawsuit and agreed to wage $120 cardinal successful compensation and penalties, taxable to tribunal approval.

There are besides losses connected the ACCC scoreboard. The ACCC opposed ANZ’s $4.9 cardinal takeover of Suncorp’s bank but mislaid that lawsuit earlier this year. Cass-Gottlieb recused herself successful that substance due to the fact that of erstwhile enactment successful the backstage sector.

The triumph against Qantas and the magnitude successful compensation and penalties is simply a alteration successful absorption for the ACCC nether Cass-Gottlieb’s leadership.

In the twelvemonth to June 30, 2023, tribunal agreed fines of lone $5.78 cardinal were handed retired for contention matters, according to the ACCC’s yearly report. For breaches of user and just trading matters, determination were $136.5 cardinal successful fines.

The humanities fines for breaches of Australian user and contention instrumentality person been tiny compared with the billions successful fines meted retired by the ACCC’s peers successful Europe and the US.

Cass-Gottlieb expects this to change, particularly due to the fact that larger fines were mandated for breaches of user and contention instrumentality but lone came into effect from past July.

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“We present request to bash the enactment to question higher penalties,” she says. “And to implicit clip get our courts comfy to spot that superior behaviour needs overmuch higher levels of penalties.”

There’s inactive overmuch to bash successful her term. Cass-Gottlieb is moving with authorities and national governments to fortify laws governing unfair trading practices to support consumers and tiny businesses, and is focused alongside her overseas peers connected regulating the relation of large tech successful the fiscal outgo systems, portion besides providing proposal to the national authorities connected Meta’s refusal to remunerate Australian quality media outlets for quality contented utilized connected its platforms.

“Frequently, what we’re talking astir [with planetary regulators] is integer level regulation,” says Cass-Gottlieb. “Europe has already introduced the Digital Markets Act, which has taken effect and has made immoderate large changes.”

The enactment seeks to make a much equitable and competitory integer economy. Apple has already made an connection to regulators to let European banking apps to marque payments with iPhones without sending them done Apple’s integer wallet. The UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, if passed, volition besides instrumentality steps successful this direction.

“Australian banks person been pushing for immoderate clip to beryllium capable to person a pat and spell [payments] connected an iPhone. While Apple has offered it successful Europe, they person to day made wide that they volition not connection it successful jurisdictions that don’t oblige it to connection it.”

In March, Commonwealth Bank main enforcement Matt Comyn attacked the deficiency of scrutiny of the marketplace powerfulness of the ample tech companies successful Australia. Credit: Oscar Colman

In March, Commonwealth Bank main enforcement Matt Comyn attacked the marketplace power of the ample tech companies successful Australia.

“One of the things that I find bonzer is the deficiency of scrutiny, crossed immoderate of the tech companies, successful particular, which person ample businesses successful Australia,” Comyn said.

Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC was moving with the national authorities connected projected regulatory reforms and legislative obligations, which would code concerns astir the usage of powerfulness by the largest integer intermediaries and their gatekeeper platforms, specified arsenic Apple’s pat and spell mobile payments system.

Laws are lone arsenic beardown arsenic the radical who instrumentality them, which Cass-Gottlieb good knows. She has achieved plentifulness wrong 2 years, and is racing against the timepiece successful this word to execute much reform. Watch that scoreboard.

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