What's to Know? The New Cartel Offence

Alex Steel, University of New South Wales

Abstract

This article examines the mental elements of the new cartel offence in the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974. it compares the wording of the offence to the interpretation of mental elements under the Commonwealth Criminal Code in R v Tang, a High Court decision on the mental elements of sexual servitude (sex slavery) offence. It concludes that there is no practical difference between the mental elements of the cartel criminal offence and parallel civil penalty provisions and argues that additional mental elements are needed to justify the criminalisation of cartel activity.