The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is to make greater use of its powers to gather evidence in complex merger investigations in the year ahead as well as broaden its work on data, algorithms and digital platforms.
Speaking to a gathering of lawyers in Sydney, the Chair of ACCC, Rod Sims (pictured) said the Commission was in the process of increasing its enforcement activities and taking a firmer stance on sanctions and penalties.
Mr Sims said that recently, the ACCC had won three significant consumer protection penalties: $10 million for Telstra, $10 million for Ford and $9 million for Apple.
“Competition penalties have also been increasing, with a maximum penalty of $46 million for Yazaki, although this is currently under appeal,” Mr Sims said.
“We have been vocal in our advocacy for the imposition of meaningful penalties that look not only at the conduct in question, but also, crucially, the relative size of the company.”
He said there was a need to alter incentives.
“It must matter a lot more to companies and their senior executives that they avoid breaching the Competition and Consumer Act,” Mr Sims said.
“The ACCC is playing an increasing role in regulation in relation to the digital economy, with it leading the consumer data right implementation, and the digital platforms inquiry.”
He said algorithms were fundamental to getting the most out of data, but they also raised competition and consumer issues for the ACCC to consider.
“We have already made a small start at looking at the impact of algorithms on the consumer experience,” Mr Sims said.
“For example, our past action against Google; and we are looking at comparator sites to see whether results are based on price and consumer benefit, or on commissions.”
He said the ACCC was also aware of the entry of dominant platforms into various “vertical” businesses, and of the European Union case against Google for abusing its dominant position to require mobile manufacturers to install its search app and app store.
