The Federal Government is developing reforms to give consumers greater access to and control over their data held by companies they do business with, such as banks, energy companies and telcos. The Consumer Data Right will allow customers to transfer their data to different providers to see if those providers offer products that would be more suitable, at a better price.

For consumers, greater use and control of their data could provide significant benefits through helping them to find services they need at reduced prices.

In this consultation the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) asked for comments on the principles that will underpin the drafting of rules for the consumer data right, prior to the draft rules being released. The rules will provide detail about how the consumer data right is to be implemented, privacy protections for consumers and the obligations of businesses. ACCAN will comment further on the consumer data rights when the draft rules are released later this year.

 

Although supportive of many elements of the draft framework, ACCAN has concerns with respect to:

  • the scope of consumer privacy protections;
  • the accreditation of data participants; and
  • the potential for consumer data to be used for anti-competitive conduct.

 

ACCAN supports further refinement of the consumer data right rules framework to ensure that the framework maximises the potential benefits to consumers, and addresses areas of potential risk. This would involve expanding the scope of privacy protections, adopting strong accreditation requirements to ensure that only reputable parties can access consumer data, and constraining the potential for data to be used anti-competitively to the detriment of consumers.

Throughout the submission we draw upon our members’ feedback and views on the issues that consumers may face based on the current drafting of the legislation. See the link below for a full copy of the submission.

 

Download:  docxACCAN submission to the Consumer Data Rules Framework111.45 KB
Download:  pdfACCAN submission to the Consumer Data Rules Framework499.24 KB