The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it has issued a draft decision proposing to grant conditional authorisation to Australian Amalgamated Terminals Pty Ltd (AAT) to allow it to operate motor vehicle and general cargo handling facilities, known as terminals, at five ports around Australia.

The first condition would provide a mechanism for stevedores other than AAT's shareholders to seek access to AAT's terminals. Another condition requires that AAT provide end-users of its terminals with a dispute resolution process.

The authorisation process exposes otherwise anti-competitive conduct to a transparent process where affected parties have the opportunity to provide comments on the costs and benefits of the conduct.

Public consultation on AAT's application for authorisation highlighted concerns about the inability for terminal end users to negotiate directly with AAT due to the nature of contractual relationships in the industry. While the price and quality of the terminal services available at a port has a direct impact on the business of importers and exporters, they tend to have no direct contractual relationship with the terminal operator.

The proposed dispute resolution process can be accessed by importers and exporters which use AAT's terminals and provides for mediation and, ultimately, expert determination. The ACCC considers that this may assist terminal end-users to negotiate directly with AAT.

The ACCC invited comments on the draft determination particularly from port corporations, stevedores and terminal end users on whether the proposed conditions will address concerns and how they will support the existing mechanisms provided by some port corporations in their oversight role of AAT.

20 October, 2009