Your small business can save time and money with recent changes to the Trade Practices Act 1974. Under these changes, it's easier for approved small businesses to join together and use the collective bargaining process to compete with bigger business when negotiating a deal.

The changes to the Trade Practice Act 1974 mean that small businesses:

• can use notification as an alternative process to authorisation to undertake collective bargaining
• can start bargaining in as little as 28 days compared with the previous 6 months
• pay less to lodge a notification, now costing only $1 000 as opposed to $7 500 for lodging an authorisation application.

The Minister for Small Business and Tourism today also launched educational material on the collective bargaining process to help businesses get started, including an Easy Steps Guide developed by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources.

For more information on collective bargaining, visit the business.gov.au Fair trading topic or visit the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) website.