The Centre for Competition and Consumer Policy (CCCP) expanded our understanding of how and why compliance arises in the regulation of competition and consumer policy; and how we can improve the effectiveness of national and international competition regulation in global markets.

CCCP brought together academics from economics, law, sociology, social psychology, geography and public administration backgrounds as well as non-academic experts, to engage in research on compliance, globalisation and its impact on issues such as international cartels, standard setting, consumer guarantees, parallel importing and intellectual property rights. It was a partnership between The Australian National University and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The work of the Centre examined national competition and consumer policy through the lens of the internationalisation of trade and the implications this has for the direction of policy formation, policy implementation and enforcement. It examined the needs, values, attitudes and behaviour of:

• those subject to competition policy, from multinationals through to small local businesses
• consumers who are the ultimate beneficiaries of an effective competition and consumer policy regime
• those responsible for its implementation and enforcement (the ACCC and, to a limited degree, other competition agencies such as those located in the US and the EU).

In developing a deeper and more systemic understanding of competition and consumer compliance the work of the Centre had three main aims:

• to improve the effectiveness and coherence of the competition and consumer policy
• to improve the ACCC’s compliance management strategies and processes
• to contribute internationally to scholarship in the field of regulation.