The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced it would investigate possible breaches of the Trade Practices Act after separate meetings yesterday with the National Association of Forest Industries and the book's publisher, Alan Gray, of Earth Garden books. Its first step will be a letter to the national chain BBC Hardware, asking if the company was subjected to unlawful pressure to withdraw the book, Forest-Friendly Building Timbers, from its stores. The Trade Practices Act prohibits exclusionary boycotts, such as suppliers banding together to pressure another company.
The commission chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said that at the moment there was no direct evidence of an unlawful collective boycott against BBC Hardware. But, he said, "because of the claims by the Wilderness Society and the author and publisher, and the fact there is some documentary material that is of some relevance to their claim, the commission has a duty to investigate".
BBC Hardware's general manager for marketing, Mr Terry Jenkins, said the company was "always happy to cooperate . . . Anything that the ACCC wants to look at, they can". Mr Jenkins was involved in negotiations with Mr Gray for the book to be launched and sold in BBC Hardware stores nationwide.
Mr Gray said he would release documents today that he believes will show BBC Hardware was subjected to threats, including a letter from a state organisation representing timber companies. He said other documents would show a pattern of behavior and intimidation.
The association's executive director, Dr Robert Bain, said the organisation was happy to cooperate with the ACCC. He said the association had had no contact with BBC Hardware other than sending a letter on 31 March threatening legal action unless the book was withdrawn. Dr Bain said that in its meeting with the commission, the association raised its objections to the book, which it says contains misleading and deceptive information about a competing product in contravention of the Trade Practices Act. The book claims logging is contributing to mass species extinction and that Australia's construction needs can be met from plantation and recycled timber.
Under section 65a of the Trade Practices Act, publishers and other "information
providers" are exempted from sections 52, 53 and 55 relating to deceptive
and misleading information. But Dr Bain said that another section
prohibited "deliberate" publication of misleading information.