Policy · Mergers & Acquisitions / Private Equity
Clean team protocol for a competitor acquisition
A protocol for a deal between competitors: who may see current competitively sensitive information, what they may use it for, and what must not happen before completion.
- Kind
- Policy. A policy or procedure for a firm or client.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow You and the tool draft together, with you directing. You check every statement you rely on.
- Law stated as at
- 22 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 22 October 2026 against the 3 authorities it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use when the buyer and the target compete, before due diligence starts, and keep it in place until completion. It sits on top of the confidentiality deed. It is not a substitute for ACCC notification.
Used for these tasks
- Triage the data room and draft a first-pass issues list
- Triage and classify a data room with AI
- Use a secure AI deal assistant for a data-room first-pass review
Each task page says how far AI may help with the task and what the lawyer must review.
How AI may be used
AI may sort data-room documents into the clean-team and ordinary folders from the lawyer's categories, and list people against the protocol; the lawyer decides what is competitively sensitive and who may see it.
AI may
- Tag documents against the categories the lawyer has marked as clean-team only
- List named clean-team members and flag a person who is also in a pricing, sales or bidding role
- Compare a proposed integration step with the prohibited list in this protocol
AI must not
- Must not decide that information is not competitively sensitive
- Must not put a person who sets prices or bids into the clean team
- Must not summarise clean-team information back to the commercial team in a form that reveals current prices, customers or bids
The lawyer checks
- The clean team is limited to people who are not involved in commercial decisions, as the ACCC fact sheet describes that practice
- The protocol forbids coordination of prices, customers, bids or marketing before completion
- Disclosure is limited to what due diligence and integration planning actually require
- A notifiable acquisition is not completed, and the businesses are not integrated, before ACCC approval or a waiver
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Read the full text
The full text is available after you log in. It is free. When you log in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
More in Mergers & Acquisitions / Private Equity
- Legal due diligence request list (share or asset acquisition)
- Non-binding indicative offer letter for a share or business acquisition (with binding confidentiality, exclusivity and costs terms)
- Transferring employees schedule for an asset sale: service, leave and redundancy
- Non-binding letter of intent for a stock or asset purchase
- Protocol for AI-assisted due diligence review, with client notice (tools, data-room terms, sampling, sign-off)
- Foreign resident capital gains withholding checklist for a share or asset acquisition
- Share sale completion agenda, deliverables checklist and funds flow (private company)
- Acquisition due-diligence request list (United States private deal)
- AI systems and data warranties and indemnities for a share or asset sale agreement
- Post-completion steps checklist for a share or business acquisition: filings, novations, IP recordals, regulators and integration
- Substantial holding notice checklist for a stake in a listed entity
- Deal-process mutual nondisclosure agreement
- ACCC merger notification screening worksheet
- Private acquisition closing checklist (United States)
- Vendor disclosure letter against sale agreement warranties
- Scheme of arrangement and takeover bid timetable and deal-protection checklist
- Directors' circulating resolution approving a share sale
- FIRB application information checklist and cover letter
All precedents for Mergers & Acquisitions / Private Equity · Tasks and AI use in this area