Submission To The Accc's Merger Assessment Guidelines Consultation.

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 27 Feb 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

The Shopping Centre Council of Australia submitted feedback on the ACCC's draft Merger Assessment Guidelines in April 2025, raising concerns about how the new merger notification regime would affect their sector. The submission identifies issues with the draft Competition and Consumer (Notification of Acquisitions) Determination 2025, arguing that routine supermarket leasing transactions—including renewals on revised terms, lease variations, and new site leases—should be exempt from notification requirements but currently are notifiable. The SCCA also flagged ambiguity around agreements for lease and renewal definitions, called for general leasing transactions to receive the same exemptions as land acquisitions, and suggested waivers could reduce unnecessary notifications. The council warned that the volume of notifiable transactions will be substantially higher than anticipated by the Taskforce and ACCC, creating disproportionate complexity, time, and cost burdens for notifying parties, and argued the regime risks being inconsistent with government efficiency