Price fixing could mean up to 10 years of jail time

SYDNEY: Directors and managers of companies that engage in price-fixing cartels could face criminal charges under new laws.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been given extra powers to pursue criminal as well as civil charges against culprits, head Graeme Samuel said.

Penalties for those convicted include jail terms of up to 10 years and lifelong bans on people being managers or directors.

Financial penalties range from the equivalent of three times the gain the conspirator received from the cartel activity or, if that cannot be determined, 10 per cent of the corporate group's turnover, including that of its subsidiaries and related companies.

The ACCC, with the federal police, will also be able to tap phones.

"That's been a necessary improvement to the investigatory powers because essentially cartels are collusive arrangements reached between competitors in secret," Samuel said.

"They use mobile phones with pre-paid SIM cards. They meet in hotels, they meet on park benches."

He said price fixing was "recognised worldwide as the most egregious form of anti-competitive conduct".

"It is simply theft, stealing from consumers ... sometimes literally millions or hundreds of millions of dollars."

Strong new laws were needed because existing penalties were not a deterrent, Samuel said.

- AAP