A buyer can inherit exposure under an agreement it never negotiated, and the person suing over it does not need the Commissioner's help to get a hearing.
Short answer
For most reviewable practices, yes, with the Tribunal's permission — but not for merger review itself. Section 103.1 of the Competition Act lets any person apply to the Competition Tribunal for leave to bring a private application under sections 74.1, 75, 76, 77, 79 or 90.1. Section 92, the merger review provision, is not on that list, so a private party cannot use s.103.1 to challenge a merger the Commissioner chose not to pursue.
Section 103.1(7) sets the leave test for most of the listed sections: “The Tribunal may grant leave to make an application under section 75, 77, 79 or 90.1 if it has reason to believe that the applicant is directly and substantially affected in the whole or part of the applicant's business by any conduct referred to in one of those sections that could be subject to an order under that section or if it is satisfied that it is in the public interest to do so.” The applicant does not need the Commissioner to have investigated, or agreed with them, first.
Section 103.1(1) names the full route: “Any person may apply to the Tribunal for leave to make an application under section 74.1, 75, 76, 77, 79 or 90.1.” Merger review under s.92 is conspicuously absent — Parliament gave private parties a route into the civil reviewable-practices provisions but kept merger review itself as a Commissioner-only gate. Section 90.1(1)(a) is one of the sections leave can reach, and it lets an order bind “any person — whether or not a party to the agreement or arrangement — from doing anything under the agreement or arrangement,” which is how a buyer can end up defending an agreement it inherited on closing rather than negotiated.
Section 103.1(10) reads: “The Commissioner may not make an application for an order under section 74.1, 75, 76, 77, 79 or 90.1 on the basis of the same or substantially the same facts as are alleged in a matter for which the Tribunal has granted leave …, if the person granted leave has already applied to the Tribunal under one of those sections.” So a private application, once it is actually filed, is not merely a parallel track running alongside whatever the Commissioner might do — it can become the only proceeding on those facts, with no help from, or interference by, the Commissioner in either direction.
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