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Let's talk antitrust: Discussing recent cases and emerging competition issues
Recent cases and judgments have shone a light on some emerging themes and trends that companies will want to consider as part of their risk management framework.
Australia | Publication | September 31, 2017
In the month of September, we saw a large number of electricity industry developments and initiatives by the National Electricity Market regulator, operator and rule maker.
The AEMC has both made, and declined to make, rules affecting networks and generators. We perceive there to be a desire by the AEMC to balance the need to support new generation (including new technologies) without imposing unnecessarily stringent administration and technical requirements, whilst also improving settings for reliability and security. This includes the following.
The AEMC declined to make a rule change that would have, among other things, reduced the generation capacity threshold for the requirement for intermittent generation to register as a scheduled generator (and comply with what can be more burdensome requirements related to market participation)
The AEMC has made a draft decision indicating that it is minded to reduce the settlement period for the electricity spot price from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. The logic is that “Price signals that align with physical operations lead to more efficient bidding, operational decisions and investment. However, a 3.5 year transition period would apply to allow for hedge market and other necessary adjustments.
The AEMC made a final rule to manage power system fault levels by requiring networks to maintain minimum levels of system strength to keep the system stable.
The AEMC made a final rule to manage the rate of change of power system frequency by requiring networks to provide minimum levels of inertia. It has also opened up consultation on creating a market to obtain and pay for inertia above minimum levels to provide additional benefits in reducing frequency volatility.
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Recent cases and judgments have shone a light on some emerging themes and trends that companies will want to consider as part of their risk management framework.
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After a lacklustre finish to 2022 when compared to the vintage year for M&A that was 2021, dealmakers expected 2023 to see the market continue to cool in most sectors, in response to the economic headwinds of rising inflation (with its corresponding impact on financing costs), declining market valuations, tightening regulatory scrutiny and increasing geopolitical tensions.
Publication
On 18 September 2023, the CMA published its Initial Report (Initial Report) on AI Foundation Models (FM), supplemented in April 2024 with the publication of its “Update Paper” focused on potential antitrust risks associated with FMs and a “Technical Update Report” providing more detail on the development on FMs (collectively the “Reports”). Below, we consider these CMA publications.
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