ACCAN recently submitted feedback to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) regarding its Discussion Paper for Interim Report No. 5: Updating competition and consumer law for digital platform services. The discussion paper will inform the ACCC’s fifth interim report for the Digital Platform Services Inquiry. ACCAN’s submission acknowledged the need for regulatory reform to ensure that Australian consumers continue to enjoy the benefits from digital platforms while reducing their harms.
ACCAN’s submission outlined our support for:
- Reforms to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA) and Australian Consumer Law (ACL)
- Consumer choice through obligations on digital platforms to foster meaningful interoperability and data portability
- The regulation and oversight of dark patterns
- Obligations on platforms to prevent scams and malicious apps
- The application of fair-trading obligations to digital platforms
- The introduction of a prohibition on unfair trading into Australian Consumer Law
- Obligations for Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) schemes and the establishment of an external review body, and
- Measures to increase transparency of digital platforms
ACCAN also argued that a consumer voice funded by industry and government is needed in the digital platforms space.
