Competition Law Cases
Trade Practices Commission v Australia Meat Holdings Pty Ltd
(1988) 83 ALR 299
Facts
This case involved a prosed merger between abattoirs. A key issue became whether the market that included the particular AMH abattoirs involved in the case was confined to northern Queensland or whether it encompassed the entire state.
Held
The market was confined to northern Queensland. Although cattle could be carried fairly easily to southern Queensland, industry evidence indicated that cattle producers did not like to truck cattle far away (for various reasons, including transportation cost and damage - bruising and wieght loss - to cattle during transportation).
Held (on the issue of market)
[317] 'A market is the field of activity in which buyers and sellers interact, and the identification of market boundaries requires consideration of both the demand and supply side. The ideal definition of a market must take into account substiution possibilities in both consumption and production. The existence of price differentials between different products, reflecting differences in quality or other characteristics of the products, does not by itself place the products in different markets. The test of whether or not there are different markets is based on what happens (or would happen) on either the demand or the supply side in response to a change in relative price.'
