THE APPLICATION OF THE tpa and the competition codes
24 Section 5(1) of the TPA provides as follows:
Parts IV, IVA, Part V (other than Division 1AA), Part VB and Part VC extend to the engaging in conduct outside Australia by bodies corporate incorporated or carrying on business within Australia or by Australian citizens or persons ordinarily resident within Australia.
25 Section 8 of the Competition Codes is in the following terms:
8 Application of Competition Code
(1) The Competition Code of this jurisdiction applies to and in relation to:
(a) persons carrying on business within this jurisdiction, or
(b) bodies corporate incorporated or registered under the law of this jurisdiction, or
(c) persons ordinarily resident in this jurisdiction, or
(d) persons otherwise connected with this jurisdiction.
(2) Subject to subsection (1), the Competition Code of this jurisdiction extends to conduct, and other acts, matters and things, occurring or existing outside or partly outside this jurisdiction (whether within or outside Australia).
26 In the case of the TPA the ACCC had to show a prima facie case that Nexans SA carried on business within Australia, and in the case of the Competition Codes, it had to show a prima facie case that Nexans SA was carrying on business within the relevant jurisdiction or was otherwise connected with the relevant jurisdiction.
27 The primary judge referred to Bray v F Hoffman-La Roche Ltd (2002) 118 FCR 1 at 17 [57] and said that the relevant date for the purposes of determining whether a respondent was carrying on business in Australia was the date that the alleged contravention occurred. In this case, that was in September/October 2003. No complaint is made by Nexans SA about those conclusions. The primary judge referred to the decision of Mason J (as his Honour then was) in Hope v The Council of the City of Bathurst (1980) 144 CLR 1 at 8-9 as to the meaning of carrying on a business. No complaint is made by Nexans SA about that reference.
28 The primary judge noted the submission of the ACCC that Nexans SA carried on business in Australia at the relevant date by reason of its own provision of services and also through its subsidiaries including Nexans Australia Pty Ltd ACN 094 715 956 ("Nexans Australia"). He noted the submission that Nexans SA carried on two businesses in Australia, namely an investment business through its wholly owned subsidiary paying it dividends and a contracting business because it entered into a contract with its subsidiary in Australia and charged a monthly commission based on turnover.
29 The primary judge said that the evidence showed that Nexans Australia was a wholly owned subsidiary of Nexans Participations and that Nexans SA owned 99.99 per cent of Nexans Participations.
30 The primary judge referred to the following evidence:
1. A company search for Nexans Australia.
2. The 2003 annual report of the Nexans group of companies.
3. Copies of documents filed by Nexans Australia with Australian Securities and Investments Commission pursuant to ASIC Class Order 98/0098.
4. Copies of 2001 and 2002 annual reports of the Nexans group of companies.
5. A media release obtained from the website of Nexans SA addressing a contract to supply cabling to "Daydream Island in Australia".
6. Affidavit evidence of Ms Susan Jacquier (assistant director of the ACCC) concerning information provided to Ms Jacquier by several persons that they had engaged in trade "with Nexans or Nexans Australia within Australia between 2001 and 2006" (paragraph 23 of the affidavit sworn on 13 November 2009).
7. The 2001, 2002 and 2003 financial reports of Nexans Australia.
8. The directors' reports for the year ended 31 December 2002 and 31 December 2003.
9. Minutes of meetings of directors of Nexans Australia.
10. A document which the ACCC submitted showed that Nexans Australia incurred commission fees payable to Nexans SA for research and development and administrative services.
11. An e-mail sent on 4 October 2001 from the managing director of Nexans Australia purportedly to a customer.
31 The primary judge referred to the submission of the ACCC that Nexans SA carried on business in Australia directly and the submission of the ACCC that Nexans SA carried on business in Australia through Nexans Participations' subsidiary Nexans Australia. As to the latter submission, the primary judge described the submission in the following terms (at [225]):
The applicant submitted that Nexans Australia supplied products under the Nexans brand that were manufactured by, and acquired from, other companies within the Nexans Group to customers in Australia, and that Nexans Australia was dependent upon Nexans to the extent that it can be said that Nexans Australia was not carrying on its own business but was carrying on the business of the Nexans group of companies and thus of that group's ultimate parent, Nexans.
32 The primary judge's conclusions may be summarised in the following way.
33 First, the evidence supported a finding, at least to a prima facie level, that Nexans acted as a treasury for its subsidiaries. The primary judge considered that that would constitute the carrying on of a business in Australia insofar as Nexans provided that service to Nexans Participations or, more particularly, to Nexans Australia. Secondly, the evidence suggested that Nexans SA's subsidiaries paid a percentage of their turnover for Nexans SA to provide administrative services. Thirdly, the evidence supported a conclusion that Nexans SA was involved in the supply of submarine cables for power supply at Daydream Island and this again indicated that it was carrying on business in its own right in Australia. Fourthly, the conversations deposed to by Ms Jacquier indicate that Nexans SA "in its own right, or through a subsidiary, carried on business during that period". Fifthly, the evidence supported a conclusion that Nexans Australia was dependent upon Nexans SA for its ability to continue to operate as a going concern. Furthermore, Nexans SA provided products under the Nexans brand to Nexans Australia who was dependent upon it for the supply of those products.
34 The primary judge referred to the submissions made by Nexans SA. He rejected those submissions and in the course of doing so he said (at [254]:
The individual criticisms that were made by Nexans of each of the documents do not address the totality of the evidence that Nexans was either carrying on business by itself or through its subsidiary. For example, where Nexans said that the financial statements did not show whether the financial support would come from Nexans or some other related entity, the submission overlooks the reference in the documents to the ultimate parent company.
35 The primary judge also referred to evidence which had been put forward by the ACCC after it had been given permission to re-open its case. That further evidence concerned a decision of Murphy J delivered on 2 March 2012 in a proceeding between Nexans SA and Nex 1 Technologies Co. Ltd (Nexans S.A. v Nex 1 Technologies Co. Ltd [2012] FCA 180). The proceeding was an appeal by Nexans SA from a decision of a delegate of the Registrar of Trade Marks. The ACCC relied in particular upon an affidavit affirmed by a Mr Thierry Roucher on 29 September 2011 and a statutory declaration of Mr Michel Rousseau and a collection of press releases by Nexans SA annexed to Mr Roucher's affidavit. Mr Roucher described himself as the marketing and communications director of Nexans SA and Mr Rousseau described himself as the corporate VP technical of Nexans. Nexans SA was the owner of the trademark and Nexans Australia was, and had been since 2001, its authorised user of the mark in Australia. The primary judge summarised the significance of the evidence as follows (at [257]-[258]):
As already mentioned, Mr Roucher had claimed that the approximate retail sale for goods sold in Australia under the "NEXANS" mark in 2005 and 2006 was €6.5 million and €7.407 million respectively. Annexed to his affidavit was the Rousseau declaration, which referred to the use of "NEXANS" mark throughout Australia in 2001. Mr Rousseau's declaration referred to sales for Nexans' products in 2004 and 2005 as €5,624,683 and €9,467,863. Those sales were made by various Nexans subsidiaries described as "Nexans selling unit[s]".
The Rousseau declaration and the Roucher affidavit did not refer to 2003, in particular September/October 2003, but it may be inferred, as the applicant argued, that retail goods were sold under the Nexan mark in that year. It is highly unlikely that there were no sales in 2003, having regard to the use of the "NEXANS" mark before 2003, and to the volume of sales in the years after 2003.
36 The primary judge concluded that at the relevant time Nexans SA carried on business in Australia both in its own right and through its subsidiaries. He held that the company was therefore within the reach of the TPA and the Competition Codes.
37 The ACCC made a further submission and that was that Nexans SA was "otherwise connected" with a state or territory for the purposes of each of the Competition Codes. The primary judge accepted that submission. He considered that the words "otherwise connected" were wider and different from the concept of "carrying on business". He considered that the words should be given a broad construction and that the matters he relied upon in order to conclude that Nexans SA was carrying on business in Australia would, in the alternative, be sufficient to support a finding that Nexans SA was "otherwise connected" with a relevant state or territory.
38 The primary judge decided that even if he was wrong in concluding that Nexans SA carried on business in Australia at the relevant time, the ACCC's claims under the TPA were "not colourable". His Honour held that they were not an attempt to fabricate jurisdiction and that this Court had jurisdiction as part of its accrued jurisdiction to decide claims made by the ACCC against Nexans SA under the Competition Codes.