ACCC calls for increased regulation in Digital Platforms Services Inquiry Final Report

In its final report in its Digital Platform Services Inquiry (DPSI), the ACCC has reiterated its view that Australia’s competition and consumer laws are inadequate to address online harms and called for a range of economy-wide and sector specific reforms. 

Background 

In 2020, at the direction of the Treasurer, the ACCC commenced a five-year inquiry into markets for the supply of digital platform services. The inquiry examined various services, including online private messaging, app marketplaces and mobile operating systems, search engines, online retail marketplaces, social media, ad tech services and data products. 

The ACCC’s Digital Platforms Branch released its DPSI final report on 23 June 2025,. This final report:^[1]

• makes a series of recommendations for reform;
• updates its previous findings in relation to online private messaging, app marketplaces and mobile operating systems, ad tech services and general online retail markets; and
• canvasses emerging competition law issues in relation to cloud computing and generative AI, as well as consumer law issues associated with online gaming.

Key findings and recommendations 

The report reiterates previous ACCC findings about a lack of competition, an associated lack of choice and innovation, and a range of consumer harms that it argues provide the impetus for urgent regulatory reform. It also canvasses the importance, from the ACCC’s perspective, of the ability to regulate conduct up front in fast-evolving markets (rather than retrospectively pursuing enforcement action for breaches of law). 

In an update to its interim reporting, the ACCC identifies manipulative design practices, fake reviews and product safety issues as common features of retail online marketplaces. The report states that 72 per cent of Australian consumers surveyed by the ACCC reported they had encountered potentially unfair practices when shopping online, and 83 per cent of consumers surveyed agreed there should be a specialised independent external dispute resolution for users of digital platform services to escalate complaints.^[2] The ACCC also considers that emerging technology such as AI may exacerbate existing harms or give rise to new consumer risks.^[3]

The ACCC identifies cloud computing and generative AI as presenting new and evolving risks to competition and consumers. It raises concerns that large cloud providers, may leverage market power through bundling, self-preferencing and exclusive partnerships, particularly as access to cloud infrastructure becomes critical to AI development.^[4] 

User terms, in-game spending and loot boxes for online gaming were also flagged as a potential source of consumer harm.

The report makes six recommendations. Recommendations 1-4 have previously been suggested in earlier interim reports of the Digital Platform Services Inquiry. Notably, recommendations 5-6 are new.

These recommendations are: 

Given the extent of potential overlap between various pieces of legislation that seem likely to pass in the current term of Australian Government and the respective responsibilities of the DP-REG regulators (eSafety, OAIC, ACMA and the ACCC), the implementation of recommendation 6 will be critical. Arguably, it should extend beyond general information sharing and collaboration to ensuring that guidance from each regulator on common topics is aligned and that there are formal processes in place to deal with the potential for parallel enforcement processes in relation to the same conduct.

Privacy reform is also flagged as continuing to be an important issue. Separately, the Privacy Commissioner has indicated that a second tranche of privacy reforms will likely be passed during this term of government.

What this means for your business 

While there may be legitimate questions about specific aspects of the ACCC’s recommendations, the core elements appear to have the support of the Australian Government and to generally reflect broad regulatory trends across a range of major jurisdictions, including Europe, the UK and US. It is also arguable that evolving consumer expectations about business practices are evolving.

In that context, the period leading up to implementation provides a meaningful opportunity for firms to minimise the impact of the proposed changes and align their practices with customer expectations by proactively:

• reviewing and, if necessary, redesigning their online customer interfaces to minimise manipulative design features, such as subscription traps, bundled consents, default settings that may steer consumers away from their inherent preferences, and features that create false urgency;
• considering ways to minimise scam activity or inauthentic reviews or endorsements on their websites, apps and other technologies;
• limiting the amount of user data they collect, auditing the ways in which that data is used and disclosed, and providing transparency about data handling practices;
• strengthening controls over user data, particularly in relation to any use of personal information to train AI models;
• scrutinising supplier and platform agreements for exclusivity clauses, price parity terms, default settings and data restrictions for competition law issues; and
• ensuring effective internal complaints handling mechanisms that allow individuals to discuss their concerns with a person and provide timely resolution of disputes. 

If you provide services of a kind that are analysed in the report, namely, online private messaging, app marketplaces, mobile operating systems, online marketplaces, ad tech, cloud computing, artificial intelligence or online gaming, the report (along with the earlier interim reports), also provides detailed guidance about the ACCC’s particular areas of concern and enforcement focus. 

^{[1] DPSI Final Report p. 1. 
[2] ACCC media release, ‘Regulatory reform in digital platform markets is needed to improve competition and consumer outcomes’. 
[3] DPSI Final Report p. 8. 
[4] DPSI Final Report pp. 216, 260-261, 314-316. 
[5] DPSI Final Report, pp. 124-142.}