New features available in acquisitions portal and updated guidance on forms

Early payment of fees for waivers and notifications

Businesses can now pay the fee for a notification waiver application or notification before formally lodging the form in the ACCC’s acquisitions portal. This enhancement will give businesses more certainty when planning submissions for a specific date by allowing parties to arrange payment in advance.

To make an early payment, you must first have an early discussion request or draft notification in the acquisitions portal for the relevant matter, so the payment can be properly associated with that matter.

Nominating parties on invoices

The acquisitions portal has also been updated to allow users to nominate who the invoice for the fee should be made out to. Once generated in the portal, you can send the invoice to the nominated users by email.

Updated guidance on forms

Updated guidance on the forms is now available on the ACCC’s website:

• Short notification form
• Long notification form
• Notification waiver application form

These updates are to assist businesses with completing and lodging the forms in the acquisitions portal. Businesses may use the guidance as a template in preparing responses to the questions in the form. The questions in the forms guidance now follow the order of the questions as presented in the online portal, so businesses can prepare their responses ahead of time.

Recap on recent past updates

• Character field limits increased: In response to feedback about the character limit in the portal not being enough for the non-confidential plain language summary, we have increased this field to 3,000 characters

• Subscribe to receive email alerts for the acquisitions register: To subscribe for email updates on the Acquisitions Register, click ‘Subscribe to email alerts for an industry’ on the main Acquisitions Register webpage or ‘Subscribe to this acquisition’ on the individual entry on the register.

• Confidentiality quick guide: A quick guide for businesses on providing confidential information to the ACCC is now available.