Pioneer Concrete (Vic) Pty Ltd v Trade Practices Commission [1982] HCA 65

High Court of Australia Gibbs C.J. Mason, Murphy and Brennan JJ. Pioneer Concrete (Vic) Pty Ltd v Trade Practices Commission [1982] HCA 65

ORDER Appeal dismissed with costs.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Nov. 11 Gibbs C.J.

The question for decision on this appeal is whether the power given by s. 155 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 Cth as amended, ("the Act") to a member of the Trade Practices Commission, by notice in writing to require any person to furnish information or produce documents relating to a matter that constitutes or may constitute a contravention of the Act may be exercised at a time when proceedings are pending in the Federal Court in respect of the very conduct to which the notice refers, but the Commission is not a party to those proceedings, and it is not suggested that the notices have been given as an aid to or for the purposes of those proceedings. For the reasons which I am about to give that question must in my opinion be answered in the affirmative.

Section 155(1) of the Act provides as follows:

Where the Commission, the Chairman or the Deputy Chairman has reason to believe that a person is capable of furnishing information, producing documents or giving evidence relating to a matter that constitutes, or may constitute, a contravention of this Act, or is relevant to the making of a decision by the Commission under subsection 93(3), a member of the Commission may, by notice in writing served on that person, require that person —

(a) to furnish to the Commission, by writing signed by that person or, in the case of a body corporate, by a competent officer of the body corporate, within the time and in the manner specified in the notice, any such information;

(b) to produce to the Commission, or to a person specified in the notice acting on its behalf, in accordance with the notice, any such documents; or