The ACCC’s examination of the alleged anti-competitive conduct of PEXA in e-conveyancing amounts to an “assessment” rather than an “investigation” a Senate committee hard on Thursday.
Quizzed by Liberal Senator Dean Smith, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, the ACCC chair, said: “We are alert to it. A set of decisions by state and territory governments to put a government monopoly to a private monopoly, is one that does require interoperability in effect as a condition that.
“We can see challenges in that framework.”
In September the Australian Registrars’ National Electronic Conveyancing Council said it had paused the design, build and test working groups for the Interoperability Program and stood down the Interoperability Project Team for the time being.
At PEXA’s AGM a week ago, its chair Mark Joiner said: “PEXA has suggested an alternate model that will increase market competition without the cost, complexity and risks that the original proposal embodied.
“This would include the separation of the core exchange from our other activities, allowing regulators to focus their attention there, and allowing others to on-sell its capabilities.”
The NSW Productivity Commission has rejected such a model.
Melinda McDonald, head of investigations at the ACCC told the Senate “work is ongoing.
“We are still in the process of assessing those concerns.
“I would not characterise it as an investigation at this stage.”