Dr Michael Schaper

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s investigation into tap contracts will be concluded by the end of this year, deputy chair Dr Michael Schaper has confirmed.

Dr Schaper was responding to a question from Endeavour Vintage Beer’s Ben Kooyman as to the reason for the delay in the watchdog presenting its findings.

“You said the average time for you to have a crack at these sorts of things is about a year… I was interviewed almost two years ago,” Kooyman told Dr Schaper.

“Is it a complexity or a research issue, that’s extending this one?

Dr Schaper said that both complexity and resources were to blame, but the latter was the most significant.

“We’ve got about 2.1 million businesses in the country… Our enforcement and investigation team is about 100 people,” he said.

“We realise it’s dragged on.”

ACCC chairman Rod Sims this weektold Fairfax the investigation has been identified asa “priority matter”.