Exceptions
15 Exceptions
Section 51 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting subsection (1) and substituting:
"(1) In deciding whether a person has contravened this Part, the following must be disregarded:
anything specified in, and specifically authorised by:
an Act (not including an Act relating to patents, trade marks, designs or copyrights); or
regulations made under such an Act;
anything done in a State, if the thing is specified in, and specifically authorised by:
an Act passed by the Parliament of that State; or
regulations made under such an Act;
anything done in the Australian Capital Territory, if the thing is specified in, and specifically authorised by:
an enactment as defined in section 3 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988; or
regulations made under such an enactment;
anything done in the Northern Territory, if the thing is specified in, and specifically authorised by:
an enactment as defined in section 4 of the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978; or
regulations made under such an enactment;
anything done in another Territory, if the thing is specified in, and specifically authorised by:
an Ordinance of that Territory; or
regulations made under such an Ordinance.
"(1A) Without limiting subsection (1), conduct is taken to be specified in, and authorised by, a law for the purposes of that subsection if:
a licence or other instrument issued or made under the law specifies one or both of the following:
the person authorised to engage in the conduct;
the place where the conduct is to occur; and
the law specifies the attributes of the conduct except those mentioned in paragraph (a).
For this purpose, 'law' means an Act, State Act, enactment or Ordinance.
"(1B) Subsections (1) and (1A) apply regardless of when the Acts, State Acts, enactments, Ordinances, regulations or instruments referred to in those subsections were passed, made or issued.
"(1C) The operation of subsection (1) is subject to the following limitations:
in order for something to be regarded as specifically authorised for the purposes of subsection (1), the authorising provision must expressly refer to this Act;
subparagraph (1)(a)(ii) and paragraphs (1)(b), (c), (d) and (e) do not apply in deciding whether a person has contravened section 50 or 50A;
regulations referred to in subparagraph (1)(a)(ii), (b)(ii), (c)(ii), (d)(ii) or (e)(ii) do not have the effect of requiring a particular thing to be disregarded if the thing happens more than 2 years after those regulations came into operation;
regulations referred to in subparagraph (1)(a)(ii), (b)(ii), (c)(ii), (d)(ii) or (e)(ii) do not have the effect of requiring a particular thing to be disregarded to the extent that the regulations are the same in substance as other regulations:
referred to in the subparagraph concerned; and
that came into operation more than 2 years before the particular thing happened;
paragraphs (1)(b) to (d) have no effect in relation to things authorised by a law of a State or Territory unless:
at the time of the alleged contravention referred to in subsection (1) the State or Territory was a party to both the Competition Principles Agreement and the Conduct Code Agreement; or
all of the following conditions are met:
within 12 months before the alleged contravention referred to in subsection (1) the State or Territory ceased to be a party to the Conduct Code Agreement or to the Competition Principles Agreement;
the thing authorised was the making of a contract, or an action under a contract, that existed immediately before the State or Territory ceased to be a party;
the law authorising the thing was in force immediately before the State or Territory ceased to be a party;
subsection (1) does not apply to things that are covered by paragraph (1)(b), (c), (d) or (e) to the extent that those things are prescribed by regulations made under this Act for the purposes of this paragraph.".
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