I have been informed by the Trade Practices Commission that the information sought by the honourable senator is as follows:

(1)   (a) There were four cases arising under the Trade Practices Act 1 965- 1 97 1 , and its predecessor Acts and the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1971 decided by the High Court. These were:

R.   v. Trade Practices Tribunal ex parte Tasmanian Breweries Pty Ltd.

An action in which the validity of the Trade Practices Tribunal was unsuccessfully challenged.

Strickland v. Rocla Concrete Pipes Ltd and Others (the Concrete Pipes'case).

An appeal against a decision of the Commonwealth Industrial Court dismissing a prosecution. Appeal dismissed; much of the Trade Practices Act 1965-1971 held to be invalid, but judgments indicated that trade practices legislation based on the corporations power could validly apply to wholly intrastate business transactions.

Mikasa (N.S.W.) Pty Ltd v. Festival Industries Pty Ltd.

On appeal from the Commonwealth Industrial Court in a private action relating to resale price maintenance, the Court held that s. 92 of the Constitution was not infringed by the relevant provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1965-1971; also that the resale price maintenance provisions in that Act were not invalid as a result of the decision in the 'Concrete Pipes'case.

R.   v. Trade Practices Tribunal and the Commissioner of Trade Practices ex parte St George County Council

The High Court held that the Council was not a corporation to which section 5 1 (xx) of the Constitution or section 37 of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1 97 1 applied.

(b)   Cases decided by the Australian Industrial Court were:

Strickland v. Rocla Concrete Pipes Ltd.

Prosecution dismissed. (Appealed to High Court).

Festival Stores v. Mikasa (N.S.W.) Pty Ltd.

A private action for injunction to restrain resale price maintenance. Injunction granted. Appealed to High Court.

In addition the Commissioner obtained injunctions to restrain resale price maintenance in 10 cases the defendants being:

Amoco Australia Pty Limited

B AS F Australia Ltd ( cattle tickicide- ' Nexagan ' )

BP Australia Limited

Caltex Oil (Australia) Pty Limited

Cedel Products (Australasia) Proprietary Limited (health and beauty aids)

Dalgety Australia Limited ('Bonaire' air conditioners) Holiday Magic Pty Limited (cosmetics and toiletries) Hoover (Australia) Pty Limited (electrical appliances) Laycock, Son & Co. Proprietary Limited ('Laconia' blankets)

Matsushita Electric Co. (Australia) Pty Ltd. ('National' television sets)

(c)   Cases decided by the Trade Practices Tribunal were:

Frozen Vegetables

Decided that a price agreement was contrary to the public interest.

Books

Exemption from resale price maintenance provisions refused.

Australian Fibreboard Container Manufacturers Association Agreement

Industry agreement on price and related matters decided to be contrary to the public interest.

Four other cases were brought before the Tribunal by the Commissioner and a lot of interlocutory and pre-trial work was done on them, but the cases were finally disposed of by the Tribunal without hearing on the merits because the parties did not defend their challenged conduct or agreements.

Tasmanian Breweries

Pharmaceutical Wholesalers

Vitreous China Sanitaryware

Cement

A fifth case, the St George County Council case referred to above, also went through interlocutory and pre-trial stages, but did not proceed after the High Court decision referred to above.

(2)   In 24 cases formal consultations under section 48 were called and the parties gave up their restrictive agreements or conduct.

In many other cases, of which there is no record in numbers, parties gave up restrictive agreements or conduct after discussions with the Commissoner or his Office which did not reach the stage of formal consultations under section 48.

(3)   There is no record of the number of cases where restrictions were lifted after letters or requests from the Commissioner but without discussions. There were numerous fixed price restrictions in agreements given up in 1973-1974 and between July 1974 and September 1974 following letters from the Commissioner to parties. The annual report speaking as at 30 June 1974 generalised in qualitative terms and said that the task of proceeding on a broad front against price agreements appeared to be half over.