ACCC's compliance and enforcement priorities update 2025-26: Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb's address
ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb gave the keynote speech at the Committee for Economic Development Australia (CEDA), Thursday 20 February 2025, on the ACCC’s compliance and enforcement priorities for 2025-26.
Introduction
I wish to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Custodians of the land we are meeting on today. I pay my respects to them, their cultures and to their Elders. I acknowledge their continuing contributions to our nation and our community and pay my respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are attending today’s event.
I thank CEDA once again for hosting this event. CEDA is a critical forum for enriching economic and policy discussion in our country. I am grateful, as always, for the opportunity to discuss the issues that matter most at this forum.
Early each year the ACCC announces our compliance and enforcement priorities for the coming financial year. With these priorities we seek to alert businesses to the areas we will be targeting, increase knowledge of our areas of concern, and elevate the importance of programs and actions by business to ensure compliance with competition and consumer law.
I am pleased to announce today the ACCC’s compliance and enforcement priorities for 2025 to 2026.
The ACCC has a strong record of enforcement, we strategically manage our enforcement programs and use the full suite of our regulatory tools, including litigation, to address concerns in Australian markets, and to achieve proportionate and appropriate outcomes.
The ACCC’s interventions are focussed on complex conduct that presents significant harm and is of critical importance to the community and our economy. In the coming financial year, we continue to prioritise sectors and conduct that have a significant impact on cost of living and cost of doing business. In addition, the priorities recognise the ongoing impacts of digital transformation and disruption, and the transition to net zero.
In the year ahead, we will continue to pursue our priorities through robust enforcement action, education to foster compliance, and advocacy for reform.
Protecting and promoting competition
When markets are not workably competitive, Australian customers – whether consumers or businesses – pay the price. When businesses compete with each other to meet consumer needs, they are incentivised to innovate and improve, to offer greater choice, lower prices and better quality products and services that deliver value for the money consumers choose to spend.
On the importance of effective competition, Australia’s recent aviation history is illustrative.
In 2024, the collapse of Bonza airlines and the withdrawal of Rex services from metropolitan routes saw Australia’s domestic aviation industry return to a duopoly – with Qantas and Virgin continuing to control more than 90 per cent of the market.[1]
When Rex first offered intercity routes, the ACCC observed a decrease in average airfares. Conversely, in the months following the withdrawal of Rex’s major city services last year, average airfares increased.[2]
A recent report by Treasury into Australia’s domestic aviation sector reveals that the presence of a single additional airline on a route leads to airfares that are 5 to 10 per cent lower. When three competitors fly a route airfares halve compared to a route with a single monopoly airline. And with four or five competitors, the price drops further still.[3]
It is clear that competition puts downward pressure on prices.
But competition manifests in benefits beyond lower prices.
Before its collapse, Bonza airline operated 37 routes – 35 of which connected regional locations and 30 of which had no other airline service.[4]
Bonza offered more affordable airfares and the convenience of direct connection to regional and holiday destinations not offered by other airlines. Similarly, Rex’s regional routes are highly valued by the communities they serve.
Greater competition in aviation gives consumers more choice in the airfares they pay, the reliability and quality of airline they fly with, and the routes they travel.
The Australian aviation sector connects communities, families and supply chains across our nation. It supports employment and social and economic inclusion across our regions. And it enables industries across our economy – tourism, mining, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and higher education – to be sustained and diversify.
The recent record of entry and exit in this vital sector is a good example of the significance of competition for consumers, business and the economy.
In the financial year ahead, our priority to address competition and consumer issues in aviation will continue, as will many of our key priorities, as we bring renewed focus to address the most pressing challenges and opportunities before us.
Australia’s new merger regime
In 2025 to 2026, the successful implementation of the new merger control regime will be a key priority for the ACCC. While this is not a specific compliance and enforcement priority, it will result in significant changes to merger control in Australia and therefore warrants noting in this forum.
The historic merger reform introduces a range of changes that strengthen both the protection and the promotion of competition in Australian markets – by providing the ACCC with the necessary tools to identify and prevent mergers that pose the greatest risk of competitive harm.
The new merger regime will come into effect from 1 January 2026, with voluntary notification available from 1 July 2025.
The key change is the move from a voluntary, judicial enforcement model to a mandatory, administrative regime, with the ACCC as the first instance decision maker on each notified acquisition.
In addition to mandatory notification, the reforms establish a faster, targeted, more transparent and certain merger regime, which includes statutory timeframes which impose strict timing requirements on the ACCC, and which provide greater certainty and quicker decisions for merger parties for non-contentious mergers. We expect that about 80 per cent of notified mergers will be approved within 15 to 20 business days.
The new regime seeks to strike the right balance to improve the scrutiny and prevention of anti-competitive mergers while minimising the regulatory burden for non-contentious acquisitions. And we are committed to administering it in a transparent and efficient manner, and to calibrating our processes so that the burden to business is proportionate.
The changes to the legislation also clarify that a substantial lessening of competition in merger assessments includes “creating, strengthening or entrenching a position of substantial market power in any market”.
This makes it clear that merger assessments should focus on the potential enhancement of market power, not just the magnitude of incremental change arising from an individual transaction.
The legislation also provides a strong deterrent against non-notification, as proceeding with a notifiable merger without notifying and waiting for the ACCC review to be completed will result in the merger being legally void.
We are well aware that successful implementation will be crucial to the overall success of the regime, and we have dedicated significant resources to ensure that our people and systems will be ready.
We know that businesses and their advisers are already looking ahead to how best to manage the transition. The ACCC acknowledges the challenges navigating this period and is committed to working with businesses during this time. To assist, we will be releasing guidelines on the transition arrangements in coming weeks.
Before the end of March 2025, we expect to commence consultation on draft process guidelines and draft analytical guidelines. I encourage businesses to actively participate in our public consultations on these guidance materials.
The new merger regime establishes statutory obligations, and it will operate most effectively where the merger parties approach the ACCC early and co-operatively. Some parties may be tempted to test the boundaries to avoid notification of transactions or genuine compliance with the regime. Ensuring compliance with the mandatory requirements will be a key focus for the ACCC, and we will be closely monitoring this when the new regime comes into effect next year.
There will be consequences for non-compliance, and we will not hesitate to take enforcement action against mergers that fail to be notified, including notifiable serial acquisitions, that are the subject of attempts to evade obligations under the new regime.
Additionally, Section 50 of the Competition and Consumer Act will continue to apply to transactions that fall outside the mandatory notification requirements. We will continue to investigate and take action against mergers that we consider are likely to substantially lessen competition under this provision.
Successfully implementing merger reform, promoting compliance with the new regime, and taking enforcement action, where necessary, will be a significant focus for the ACCC in 2025 to 2026.
Competition in supermarket and retail sectors
We will also be prioritising competition issues in the supermarket and retail sector, focussing on firms with market power and conduct that impacts small business.
In 2024, the ACCC conducted an inquiry to examine pricing, competition and emerging issues in Australia's supermarket sector. The final report of our inquiry will be provided to Government in the near future.
Our preliminary analysis suggests that the retail level of Australia’s supermarket industry is highly concentrated. Based on revenue in the 2023 financial year, we estimate that Coles and Woolworths account for approximately 67 per cent of national supermarket retail sales.
While Australia’s three largest operators – ALDI, Coles and Woolworths – together with Metcash account for 83 per cent.[5]
Through our surveys to inform our inquiry we heard a range of experiences from consumers and small businesses.
We heard of consumers challenged by grocery affordability who were buying less food, skipping meals, and experiencing emotional distress when grocery shopping.
We heard of Australians in rural and remote communities – and families with lower household incomes – who particularly felt the impact of higher prices and a lack of choice.
We also heard of Australian farmers and small businesses who were concerned by an imbalance of bargaining power between supermarkets and suppliers.
In 2024, the Australian government allocated $30 million to the ACCC – to be delivered over 3 and a half years – for dedicated investigations and enforcement activities to address competition and consumer concerns in the supermarket and broader retail sector.
This funding will enable us to pursue anti-competitive conduct that may contribute to higher prices for consumers and unfair treatment of suppliers. It will also allow us to address consumer and fair trading issues with a focus on misleading pricing practices.
Competition in essential services
Market concentration is a growing challenge across the Australian economy – in supermarkets and retail, in aviation, and in many of our essential services.
In 2024, the ACCC actively worked to promote and protect competition across Australia’s essential services, in our telecommunications and energy industry monitoring, regulatory and Gas Market Code functions.
We made several recommendations aimed at improving competition and consumer outcomes in the energy sector. These include enhancing market transparency, reducing regulatory barriers to new investment and expansion, and implementing regulatory reforms to free up customer switching.
The ACCC also allowed a network-sharing agreement between Optus and TPG Telecom to expand coverage and improve services in underserved regional areas dominated by Telstra.
This agreement expands TPG’s coverage to 98.4 per cent of Australia's population.[6]
In the current context of cost of living and cost of doing business concerns, Australian consumers and small businesses are particularly vulnerable to anti-competitive conduct in essential services – and the impacts on price, choice and quality of services.
In recognition of this ongoing concern, in 2025 to 2026, our priority on promoting competition in essential services with a focus on telecommunications, electricity, and gas will continue.
Competition in the digital economy
The digital economy will also be a key area of focus in the year ahead.
Digital products and services are critically important to Australian consumers and businesses, and are major drivers of productivity growth in our economy.
Search engines, app stores, social media services and online marketplaces make it easy to access a vast range of information, entertainment, products and services online.
They are also increasingly necessary for Australian businesses to find, connect and transact with consumers. Indeed, in the 2024 financial year, the Australian online search and display advertising market was worth approximately $13 billion.[7]
Competitive, contestable and safe digital markets are vital to consumers, to businesses and to the economy.
Since 2017, the ACCC has been looking at competition and consumer issues in particular digital markets. We have found that in markets where large digital platforms face weak competition, they can engage in conduct that reduces choice for consumers, stifles innovation and increases prices.
In response to these identified concerns, the ACCC has pursued investigations of potential anti-competitive conduct. and made recommendations for targeted platform service specific competition measures to address anti-competitive and harmful conduct while maintaining the right conditions for competition, innovation and growth.
In 2024, through our investigations into Google’s search services in Australia we noted that Google had entered exclusive agreements with Telstra, Optus, and TPG.
These agreements mandated pre-installation of Google Search as the default option on an exclusive basis on Android devices supplied by these telecommunications carriers.
As one way to address this, the ACCC has secured separate undertakings from Telstra, Optus, and TPG, preventing them from renewing or entering into similar agreements with Google in the future.[8]
Given the critical importance of digital platforms in the Australian economy, the concerning conduct we have observed, and the significant risks posed to competition and consumer welfare, our compliance and enforcement work in this sector is a priority in 2025 to 2026. The ACCC is also pleased to be working with Treasury towards implementing its proposed new digital competition regime.
Misuse of market power and cartels
Of course, our enduring priorities to address anti-competitive agreements, misuse of market power and cartel conduct remain an important foundation of our work to protect and promote competition.
In the 2024 financial year, the total fines and penalties awarded in the ACCC’s competition enforcement program exceeded $100 million. This is the highest total ever achieved by the ACCC in a financial year for competition law breaches.
We have a strong cartel enforcement program, with several well-advanced investigations spanning a range of important sectors of the economy.
We also have a number of cartel matters in litigation. Most recently, we commenced proceedings in December against Ventia, Spotless and a number of executives in relation to alleged collusion in the supply of services to the Department of Defence by Ventia and Spotless.
Where appropriate, we will use non-litigated measures to resolve serious competition concerns more quickly and allow competition in markets to be restored earlier. Examples of this include our intervention in 2024 in accepting court enforceable commitments from Telstra, Optus, and TPG as part of our ongoing investigation into Google's search services.
Another good example of the use of non-litigated resolution to resolve concerns quickly, for the benefit of consumers, took place in 2022, when we accepted a court enforceable undertaking from Telstra.
The undertaking addressed concerns that Telstra may have misused its market power when it registered certain radiocommunications sites that interfered with Optus’ plans to roll out its 5G network nationally. The undertaking supported Optus' early access to the spectrum and its 5G roll out – ultimately benefiting consumers by facilitating greater choice in mobile phones and mobile phone plans.
As we look to the year ahead, our competition enforcement program currently has a number of matters in various stages of litigation, including the upcoming trial in our misuse of market power proceedings against Mastercard. And as noted our recent civil cartel action against Spotless and Ventia for conduct impacting services provided to the Department of Defence.
Taking strong action on cartel conduct is at the heart of the ACCC’s role as a competition enforcement agency. Cartels undermine the competitive process, restrict output, and increase the price of everyday goods for all Australians.
We are proud of our history of cartel enforcement and will continue to bring cartel proceedings, and, where appropriate refer briefs to the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions.
We also have a robust pipeline of matters under investigation in markets that are of critical importance to Australian businesses and consumers. This portfolio of work spans both the competition provisions and cartel conduct. We expect more important competition actions and outcomes in the year ahead.
Confident, informed consumers drive competition
I started this speech noting that when markets are not workably competitive, Australian customers pay the price.
But it is also true that when customers are misinformed and lack confidence in the representations being made by suppliers, markets and the suppliers in them, pay the price.
Conduct that erodes trust and impedes informed purchasing decisions is a concern for consumers and the many businesses acting within the bounds of our law. Such conduct significantly impairs the capacity for competition on the merits.
In 2024, in tandem with our competition enforcement program, the ACCC pursued a comprehensive program of enforcement and compliance work in consumer and small business protection.
In the 2024 financial year, the total fines and penalties awarded by the courts as a result of the ACCC’s consumer and industry codes enforcement action exceeded $500 million.[9]
We achieved 35 ACL and industry codes interventions, including 9 court cases 10 infringement notice matters, and 16 court-enforceable undertakings or other administrative resolutions.
To date, in the 2025 financial year, we have commenced Federal Court proceedings in 8 matters, including:
Separate proceedings against Woolworths Group Limited and Coles Supermarkets Australia for allegations of misleading consumers through discount pricing claims on hundreds of common supermarket products. We estimate that Woolworths and Coles sold tens of millions of the affected products and derived significant revenue from those sales.
Against Optus for allegations of unconscionable conduct in sales and debt collection activity, including selling telecommunications goods and services to hundreds of consumers, many of whom were experiencing vulnerability and/or disadvantage.
Proceedings against mail order and direct marketing company Magnamail and its parent company Direct Group for allegedly making false or misleading statements in relation to ‘pre-draw’ promotions.
Proceedings against Clorox, the manufacturer of GLAD-branded kitchen and garbage bags, for allegedly making false or misleading representations that certain products were partly made of recycled ‘ocean plastic’.
And proceedings against Ausnew Home Care Service Pty Ltd – an NDIS service provider, for alleged misleading was/now pricing conduct, misleading ‘urgency’ representations designed to induce purchasing, misleading representations about customers’ consumer guarantees rights, and misleading “NDIS approved” statements in Ausnew’s Google advertisements.
Penalties imposed by the Federal Court in the current financial year to date include:
- $100 million to Qantas for misleading consumers by offering and selling tickets for flights it had already decided to cancel, and by failing to promptly tell existing ticketholders of its decision. This followed admissions by Qantas that it had contravened the ACL and joint submissions by the ACCC and Qantas - announced in May 2024 with a consumer redress program of about $20 million.
- $10 million to Grays eCommerce Group for making false or misleading representations in descriptions of cars listed for sale on its website, including undisclosed obvious faults. A consumer redress program will also commence under the terms of a court enforceable undertaking accepted by the ACCC in February 2024.
- $14 million to Energy Australia for making misleading statements to consumers about energy prices and breaching the Electricity Retail Code.
These matters highlight our commitment to prioritise enforcement matters in sectors of critical importance – including supermarket and retail, aviation and essential services. And address conduct that causes significant harm, including conduct that disproportionately impact consumers experiencing disadvantage or vulnerability.
In addition to enforcement action, we continue to use our full range of tools and powers to promote consumer welfare. This includes delivering ACL and industry codes compliance initiatives; and exploring new ways to raise the standard of acceptable business practice in Australia.
As with our competition matters, we will use non-litigated interventions, where appropriate, to address ACL concerns and resolve issues expeditiously and to ultimate the benefit of consumers.
For example, in June 2023, energy retailer Blue NRG agreed to compensate several small business clients after it admitted it made false or misleading representations about its legal right to raise electricity prices.
Following intervention by the ACCC, Blue NRG did not proceed with the foreshadowed increase which would effectively double the price of electricity for 543 business customers – many of them small businesses.
In addition, Blue NRG provided a court-enforceable undertaking to the ACCC that it will not increase electricity rates for the term of the fixed-rate contracts or make any representations that it has a legal right or power to do so.[10]
Continuing priorities in consumer, fair trading and product safety
As I have noted, Australia’s consumer protection laws work in tandem with our competition laws to promote the proper functioning of Australian markets and deliver better outcomes for consumers, small businesses and our economy.
I have already outlined the priority areas where the ACCC will be focused on promoting and protecting competition in the year ahead: aviation, the supermarket and retail sectors, essential services, and the digital economy.
In these same areas we will also be working to address consumer and fair trading issues, and, where relevant, product safety concerns.
Our 2025 to 2026 financial year priorities include:
- Consumer and fair trading concerns in the supermarket and retail sectors, with a focus on misleading pricing practices. We know when families are facing cost of living pressures, having confidence that you are buying the products that deliver value for money, and that meet pricing and product claims, is even more important than ever.
- Misleading pricing and claims in relation to essential services, with a particular focus on energy and telecommunications. Households and businesses rely on these services, it is critical that service plans, and pricing claims are clear, accurate and deliver the value represented to customers.
- Consumer issues in the aviation sector.
- Unfair contract terms in consumer and small business contracts, in recognition of the imbalance of power more broadly between larger businesses that impose standard form contracts on one hand, and small businesses and consumers on the other. In the financial year ahead, this priority will include a focus on harmful cancellation terms, including those associated with automatic renewals, early termination fee clauses and non-cancellation clauses.
- Product safety, consumer and fair trading issues in the digital economy, with a focus on misleading or deceptive advertising within influencer marketing, online reviews, in-app purchases and unsafe consumer products. Promoting choice, compliant sales practices and removing unfair contract terms such as subscription traps in online sales, is a key focus for the ACCC.
- Improving compliance by NDIS providers with their obligations under Australian Consumer Law; and
- Improving industry compliance with consumer guarantees, with a focus on consumer electronics.
Continuing focus on environmental claims and sustainability
Our priority on consumer, fair trading and competition concerns in relation to environmental claims and sustainability will also continue.
Many Australian consumers want to reduce the negative impacts of their consumption choices on the environment, and use environmental claims as a key factor to decide where they want to spend their money.
False or misleading claims distort purchasing decisions, erode consumer trust and unfairly disadvantage businesses who are making genuine claims. It is important to consumer and small business welfare that environmental claims are accurate, substantiated, and aligned with the understanding of the ordinary and reasonable consumer.
Accurate environmental claims are also important for the competitive process. Demand from consumers to purchase sustainably creates an incentive for businesses to take steps to reduce the environmental impacts of their operations. Where a business can differentiate its operations from competitors, they should do so, and in turn, they should receive the benefits of that innovation. This will prompt a competitive response.
In this context, efforts to promote accurate environmental claims will help deliver economic and environmental benefits by promoting competitive markets that incentivise the allocation of business capital and consumer expenditure toward genuine sustainability initiatives.
In the year ahead, this priority will include a focus on greenwashing in recognition of the substantial impact of this conduct on consumer trust and engagement. We have several important investigations that are ongoing, and we will continue to proactively target misleading green claims aimed at consumers in a range of sectors including energy, food, fashion, and homewares.
We also continue working to ensure that genuine sustainability collaborations between businesses are not unnecessarily deterred.
In December 2024, we released our final guide on sustainability collaborations and Australian competition law to improve businesses’ understanding of where competition law risks are less likely to arise when collaborating to improve sustainability outcomes. And to make it clear that competition law need not be a barrier for those considering sustainability collaborations that benefit the public.
In the year ahead, we will continue our work to ensure competition on green merits is driving innovation in the transition to greater environmental sustainability.
A new focus for product safety for young children
Our priority on product safety for young children will also continue in the financial year ahead, with a focus on the enforcement of button battery standards. While we have seen many retailers work to improve compliance, the significant risks of injury associated with these products remains a concern.
In recognition of this, we will continue our work in the year ahead to address systemic non-compliance of these standards.
Our product safety for young children priority in the 2025 to 2026 financial year will also focus on raising awareness about new infant sleep and toppling furniture standards. The ACCC has engaged closely with industry, and will continue to do so, to encourage compliance when the standards commence.
A new priority on misleading surcharging practices and other add on costs
In addition to these priorities, a new priority will be introduced in the 2025 to 2026 financial year to address misleading surcharging practices and other add-on costs.
In 2024, the government allocated $2.1 million in new funding to the ACCC to tackle excessive card surcharging. We have worked with the RBA on card surcharging over many years and we have taken enforcement action against merchant surcharging that exceeds the cost of card acceptance.
In the year ahead, our work will focus on increasing business compliance with the excessive card payment surcharging prohibition, and improving pricing practices to ensure all add on costs are appropriately disclosed.
We will also continue to contribute to the RBA’s current policy considerations on solutions to the card surcharging and retail payments frameworks to support consumers and businesses while ensuring effective competition in the payments system.
Unfair trading practices reform
We also continue our advocacy for the introduction of a prohibition on unfair trading practices to close the gap in Australia’s current consumer laws.
The increasing complexity and sophistication of online and offline commerce has provided new opportunities to influence and distort consumer decision-making. The ACCC continues to observe concerning business conduct that, while not necessarily breaching current consumer laws, nevertheless causes significant harm to consumers and small businesses and can erode trust and confidence across entire sectors.
Introducing a prohibition on unfair trading practices is critical to addressing this conduct.
Such a reform would modernise Australia’s consumer protection framework – bringing it in line with international best practice. We also consider that such a reform would support a new standard for business conduct – driving better outcomes for consumers, markets and the economy.
Conclusion
Our complementary mandates across competition, fair trading and consumer law compliance and enforcement support the community to participate with trust and confidence in commercial life and promote the proper functioning of Australian markets.
Our capability and commitment to these aims is evident, not just in the priorities and programs I have outlined today, but in our work combatting scams through the National Anti-Scam Centre, in our digital regulation functions including the consumer data right and digital identity, and in many other areas.
In the year ahead, as we progress this work, we will continue to use our full range of tools and powers available under Australia’s Competition and Consumer Act and ACL.
We will continue to exercise our enforcement powers independently, in the public interest, and with integrity and professionalism.
And we will continue, as always, to remain clear eyed in our purpose to enhance competition across our economy, to promote the welfare of consumers and small businesses, and to make markets work for all Australians.
Footnotes
[1] ACCC, Domestic Airline Competition in Australia, November 2024.
[2] ACCC, Domestic Airline Competition in Australia, November 2024.
[3] Treasury, How competition impacts prices: the Australian aviation sector, 26 August 2024.
[4] ACCC, Domestic Airline Competition in Australia, May 2024.
[5] ACCC, Supermarkets Inquiry interim report, 27 September 2024.
[6] ACCC, Optus Mobile Pty Ltd and TPG Telecom Limited proposed network and spectrum sharing review, 12 July 2024.
[7] Interactive Advertising Bureau Australia, Internet Advertising Revenue Report FY24 & June Quarter, September 2024.
[8] ACCC, ACCC accepts undertaking from TPG in ongoing investigation into Google's search services media release, 13 August 2024
[9] Noting that these penalties are unlikely to be recovered as Phoenix and CTI went into liquidation after the ACCC and the Commonwealth commenced proceedings.
[10] ACCC, Blue NRG Pty Ltd undertaking, 29 June 2023.
Gina Cass-Gottlieb commenced her 5-year appointment as Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on 21 March 2022.
Before she joined the ACCC Gina was a senior and founding partner of Gilbert and Tobin’s competition and regulation team. Gina has over 25 years' experience advising on a large number of merger, competition and regulatory matters in Australia and New Zealand. She is widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading competition and regulatory experts.
Gina was appointed by the Commonwealth Treasurer to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board in 2013. She was re-appointed in 2018 and again in 2023 for a further 5 year term. The Payments System Board is the regulator of access to payment systems. Gina was appointed to the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority in September 2021. For 10 years Gina was a director on the board of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.
Gina has received numerous accolades from Chambers Asia Pacific, Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Who’s Who Legal, Lawyers Weekly Awards, Beaton Client Choice Awards and Best Lawyers Australia, for her competition and legal expertise.
Gina holds Bachelor of Economics and Laws degrees from the University of Sydney. Gina was a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley from 1986 to 1987, majoring in US competition law, constitutional law, financial institutions regulation and securities regulation.
Gina is the first female Chair of the ACCC since it was established as an independent statutory authority in 1995.