Associate Professor Caron Beaton-Wells

• Associate Professor, University of Melbourne
  Director, Competition Law and Economics Network
  Lead Researcher, The Cartel Project

 

Relevant qualifications

• LLB (Hons) Melb (1994)
• LLM Melb (1998)
  
• PhD Melb (2002)
• Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria

Relevant work history

• University of Melbourne
• Barrister (Member of Victorian Bar since 1997)
• Associate to Justice Balmford, Supreme Court of Victoria
• Solicitor, Mallensons Stephen Jaques

Competition Law projects and consultancies

• Director, Competition Law and Economics Network
• Cartel Project
  Lead researcher in a Australian Research Council-funded project on criminalisation.
• Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network (2010)
• Consulted on competition law matters for OECD
• Consulted on competition law matters for the New Zealand Government

Relevant professional memberships

• Member, International Advisory Board of the Loyola Chicago Consumer Antitrust Institute
• Member, Trade Practices Committee, Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia
• Member, American Bar Association's Sections of Antitrust Law and International Law
• Inaugural Member, Academic Board of the Asian Competition Law and Economics Centre in Hong Kong (December 2008)

Other

• 2010 - named one of the top female competition law professors in the world by the Antitrust and Competition Policy Blog

Competition law publications

Publication lists

• Melbourne Law School publications list
• SSRN online publications

Books

• Beaton-Wells and Fisse, Australian Cartel Regulation: Law, Policy and Practice in an International Context (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
• Caron Beaton-Wells and Ariel Ezrachi (eds), Criminalising Cartels: Critical Studies of an International Regulatory Movement (Hart Publishing, 2011)
• Beaton-Wells, Proof of Antitrust Markets in Australia, Federation Press (2003)

Book chapters

• ‘Australia's Criminalisation of Cartels: Will It Be Contagious?’ in More Common Ground for Competition Law?, Academic Society for Competition Law Series (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2011)
• 'Criminalising Cartels: Why Critical Studies?' in Caron Beaton-Wells and Ariel Ezrachi (eds), Criminalising Cartels: Critical Studies of an International Regulatory Movement (Hart Publishing, 2011)
• 'Cartel Criminalisation and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission - Opportunities and Challenges' in Caron Beaton-Wells and Ariel Ezrachi (eds), Criminalising Cartels: Critical Studies of an International Regulatory Movement (Hart Publishing, 2011)

Reports

• The Cartel Project (Caron Beaton-Wells, Fiona Haines, Christine Parker and Chris Platania-Phung), 'Report on a Survey of the Australian Public Regarding Anti-Cartel Law and Enforcement (December 2010)

Articles

2011

• Caron Beaton-Wells, 'Anti-cartel advocacy: how has the ACCC fared?' (December 2011) 33(4) Sydney Law Review 735
• Brent Fisse and Caron Beaton-Wells, 'Private disclosures of price-related information to a competitor "in the ordinary course of business": A new slippery dip in the political playground of Australian Competition Law' (2011) 39 Australian Business Law Review 367-379
• B Fisse and C Beaton-Wells, 'The Competition and Consumer Amendment Bill (No. 1) (Exposure Draft): A Problematic Attempt to Prohibit Information Disclosure' (2011) 39(1) Australian Business Law Review 28

2010

• Caron Beaton-Wells and Brent Fisse,  'U.S. Policy and Practice in Pursuing Individual Accountability for Cartel Conduct: A Preliminary Critique' (2010) Antitrust Bulletin
• Caron-Beaton-Wells and Fiona Haines, 'The Australian Conversion: How the Case for Cartel Criminalisation Was Made' (2010) New Journal of European Criminal Law
• Caron Beaton-Wells and Brent Fisse, 'Broadening the Definition of Collusion: A Call for Caution' (2010) 38 Federal Law Review 71

2009

• Caron Beaton-Wells and Brent Fisse, 'Criminal Cartels: Individual Liability and Sentencing' (June 2009) University of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No 415 (SSRN)
• Caron Beaton-Wells and Brent Fisse, 'The Cartel Offences: An Elemental Pathology' (June 2009) University of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No. 414 (SSRN)
• Caron Beaton-Wells and Fiona Haines, 'Making Cartel Conduct Criminal: A Case-Study of Ambiguity in Controlling Business Behaviour' (2009) 42 Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology [at SSRN]

2008

• Caron Beaton-Wells, 'Criminalising Cartels: Australia’s Slow Conversion' (2008) 31 World Competition 205-233 [at SSRN]
• Caron Beaton-Wells, 'The Politics of Cartel Criminalisation: A Pessimistic View from Australia' (2008) 29 European Competition Law Review
• Caron Beaton-Wells and Brent Fisse, 'The Australian Criminal Cartel Regime: A Model for New Zealand?' (2 August 2008)
  University of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No 413 (SSRN)
• Caron Beaton-Wells and Brent Fisse, 'Criminalising Serious Cartel Conduct: Issues of Law and Policy' [2008] UMelbLRS 3
• Caron Beaton-Wells, Forks in the Road: Challenges Facing the ACCC's Immunity Policy for Cartel Conduct (Part 1) (2008) 16 Competition and Consumer Law Journal; U of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No. 403
• Caron Beaton-Wells, Forks in the Road: Challenges Facing the ACCC's Immunity Policy for Cartel Conduct (Part 2) (2008) 16 Competition and Consumer Law Journal; U of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No. 404.
• Caron Beaton-Wells and Neil Brydges, The Cardboard Box Cartel Case: Was All the Fuss Warranted? (2008) 36 Australian Business Law Review, U of Melbourne Legal Studies Research Paper No. 393

2007

• Caron Beaton-Wells, 'Capturing the Criminality of Hard Core Cartels: The Australian Proposal' (2007) 31(3) Melbourne University Law Review [at SSRN]

2006

• Caron Beaton-Wells, 'Mergers without markets? Unilateral effects analyisis in the United States and its prospects in Australia'
  (2006) 34 ABLR 186

More to follow

Media

• Beaton-Wells, Will Rod Sims' tougher approach pay off for the ACCC? (The Conversation, 7 September 2011)
• Beaton-Wells, Less rhetoric, more restraint required in 'cartel crackdown' (The Conversation, 28 March 2011)

 

Submissions to inquiries

• Competition and Consumer Amendment Bill (No 1) Exposure Draft (with Brent Fisse)
  This draft bill proposed price signalling laws for the banking industry
• Discussion Paper - Meaning of 'Understanding' in the Trade Practices Act 1974 (2009) (with Brent Fisse)
  This discussion paper was prompted by the construction to the meaning of understanding taken in the petrol cases. No report released.
• Exposure Draft Bill for comment - Criminal Penalties for Serious Cartel Conduct (January 2008) (with Brent Fisse)
  First draft bill - modified bill passed in 2009 with significant amendments