Victoria v Australian Building Construction Employees' and Builders Labourers' Federation

The High Court of Australia considered a dispute between the State of Victoria and the Australian Building Construction Employees' and Builders Labourers' Federation. The State sought to restrain the Federation from continuing a ban on the use of certain prefabricated components in building construction, alleging that this ban constituted an unlawful restraint of trade.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the Federation's ban on the use of prefabricated components was an unlawful restraint of trade at common law. This required the Court to determine if the ban went beyond what was reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the Federation's members and if it imposed an unreasonable restriction on trade.

The Court reasoned that a restraint of trade is only lawful if it is reasonable in the interests of the parties and the public. Applying this principle, the Court found that the Federation's ban was not justified by any legitimate interest of its members. The ban was found to be an unreasonable restriction on the freedom of employers to conduct their businesses and on the freedom of trade generally, as it did not serve any proper industrial purpose. The Court concluded that the ban was therefore an unlawful restraint of trade.

The High Court ordered that the Federation be restrained from continuing the ban on the use of prefabricated components.