2025 will see the biggest changes to Australia’s Mergers and Acquisitions regulatory landscape for a considerable time. On 10 December 2024, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Mergers and Acquisitions Reform) Bill 2024 received Royal Assent resulting in a shift from a voluntary informal review scheme to a mandatory administrative review process. This is a clear statement to focus on protecting competition through merger control.

The ACCC has announced its enforcement and compliance priorities for 2024-2025. This article explores what this may mean for franchises.

The Corporations Amendment (Meetings and Documents) Bill 2021 (Bill) passed the Senate on Thursday 10 February 2022.

The time to apply for a director identification number (Director ID) is almost upon us. Under the 2020 Budget Digital Business plan, the Federal Government announced the establishment of the new Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS).

The Federal Government has announced further measures to assist in curbing illegal phoenix activity as part of the release of the 2018 Budget on 8 May 2018.

The Federal Government has this week announced a number of proposed reforms aimed at those individuals, entities and advisors who undertake or facilitate illegal phoenix activity.

The enforceability of vendor restraint clauses contained in sale of business agreements is currently under review in the Supreme Court of Victoria in the case of Southern Cross Computer Systems P/L (ACN 005 770 598) and Ingenio Group P/L (ACN 610 396 748) v Palmer, Christopher Anthony; Faithfull, Jamie and Jakimoski, Zoran [2017] VSC 412.

Financial Synergy Holdings Pty Ltd v FC of T [2016] FCAFC 31 - High Court denies application for special leave to appeal

PAYG withholding variation for foreign resident capital gains withholding payments – deceased estate and legal personal representatives

The Government has confirmed that the proposed increase of the aggregated turnover threshold to $10 million applies to the Small Business Restructure Roll-over relief.

The Franchising Code of Conduct will be repealed and replaced with a new Code (Code) on 1 January 2015. The Code applies to all franchise agreements that are entered into, renewed or transferred after 1 January 2015 and will affect all businesses that are franchised.

In a recent speech to the Australian Institute of Directors, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chairman Greg Medcraft outlined ASIC’s expectations for directors. Previous speeches focused on the director’s role as a gatekeeper, and Mr Medcraft has said this will continue to be a focus for ASIC.

The chairman stated that directors should ensure their company has strong internal and audit compliance functions. He stated these functions are worthless unless the directors back it up with supervision and review, and that these processes are ingrained in the company’s culture. He considered culture a very important point and stressed directors should drive the right compliance culture in the workplace.

Justice Gleeson of the Federal Court of Australia has provided further clarification surrounding the power of the Registrar to correct errors on the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) in the case of SFS Projects Australia Pty Ltd v Registrar of Personal Property Securities [2014] FCA 846.

In this case, SFS Projects Australia Pty Ltd (SFS Projects) was assigned three security interests that were already registered on the PPSR. A mistake was made by the assignor who incorrectly changed the end date of the registrations, instead of changing the name of the secured party, to SFS Projects. If the error was not corrected, SFS Projects would be deprived of the benefits of a continuously perfected security interest under the Personal Property Securities Act 2010 (PPSA).

The Options Paper, Australia’s Charities and Not-for-profits has been released to seek feedback on proposed arrangements for charities in Australia following the Government’s planned repeal of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). The Government’s proposed arrangements attempt to balance reducing the administrative burden of reporting obligations with the need for public accountability.

There is no requirement to file the underlying agreement that gives rise to a security interest on the Personal Property Securities Register (Register).  This has the potential to give rise to fake or sham registrations because the Register cannot determine if a registration is in fact a genuine security interest. This creates a situation where the Register can be compromised by the lodgement of sham registrations.

Effective from 1 July 2014, the definition of “motor vehicle” under the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (PPSA) has been amended to include a motor vehicle that:

- is capable of travelling at more than 10km/hr; and
- has a total motor power greater than 200W.

The Australian Government has released a consultation paper which seeks to protect small businesses from the burden of unfair contract terms in standard form contracts. 

Unfair contract terms go beyond what is necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the party seeking to include the terms in the contract (for example a large corporate business). These terms create a significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the parties to the contract. Similar provisions currently exist to protect consumers in dealing with businesses.