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SYDNEY - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the federal Government will strengthen the powers of Australia's consumer watchdog to prosecute and jail business owners involved in cartels.
The Australian newspaper has reported the Government will legislate for jail terms of up to five years for business people who collude with competitors to control prices.
Amending the Trade Practices Act is a key priority, the paper reported.
Competition Minister Chris Bowen told the paper that investigators at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had great difficulty tackling predatory pricing.
"We want to make them [the laws] work again," Bowen said.
"The previous Government didn't believe in competition and completely failed in all these areas.
"We will significantly strengthen the Trade Practices Act and I would hope for support from the cross-benches - from all the cross-benches," he said.
Bowen said it was very hard for prosecutors to prove anti-competition.
"We'd remove the necessity for the ACCC to prove that a company can recoup its losses after it's behaved in a predatory fashion," he said.
In October, Visy Industries owner Richard Pratt was fined a record A$35 million ($40 million) for collusion on cardboard prices with rival Amcor.
Existing law does not provide for imprisonment in such cases but Labor plans to give the ACCC power to investigate creeping acquisitions, in which companies increase control by gradually buying competitors.
- AAP
