Virgin Australia-Tiger Australia acquisition creates "competition concerns" for the ACCC

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has spelled out its concerns that allowing Virgin Australia to buy 60% of Tiger Australia, would create a duopoly, albeit across four brands.

In a "statement of issues" released 07-Feb-2012, ACCC says: "The ACCC's preliminary view is that the proposed acquisition may raise competition concerns in the market for Australian domestic air passenger transport services".

The regulator outlines two key issues that it will investigate further:

• that the proposed acquisition may increase the likelihood of coordinated conduct by competitors; and
• that the proposed acquisition would remove all competition between Virgin Australia and Tiger Australia.