Competition, consumer, and fair trading issues within the digital economy continue to be a key enforcement priority for the ACCC, given the critical role that digital platforms play in economic productivity, alongside the associated risks they pose. Through the ACCC and developments in the broader regulatory environment, we have seen the advancement of the Digital Platforms Service Inquiry (the Inquiry), with the ACCC releasing its tenth and final report and introducing the Scam Prevention Framework (SPF). Similarly, we have seen strong enforcement action taken by the ACCC to address concerns, including through the acceptance of undertakings, imposition of penalties, and commencement of proceedings. Unsurprisingly, we have also seen a strengthened focus on consumer protection in relation to AI-enabled goods and services, and on the level of protection afforded under the current regime, through the Treasury’s Review of AI and the ACL (Review) and the Government’s National AI Plan (AI Plan). 

Key enforcement activity 

NAB 

Penalty for CDR Breaches  

In our 2024 ACCC Year in Review, we continued our focus on recent developments to the CDR regime, a data-sharing program that allows Australian consumers to safely transfer data businesses hold about them for their own benefit. This new consumer right was touted by the Government as assisting consumers to more easily transfer their custom between businesses and, in doing so, improve competition in various sectors. However, these changes have not been implemented as quickly as expected and, as such, it's no surprise that on 19 June 2025, NAB paid a record $751,000 in penalties after the ACCC issued it with 4 separate infringement notices for allegedly failing to disclose, or accurately disclose, credit limit data in reply to requests made by CDR accredited providers on behalf of consumers. 

In its media release, the ACCC stressed the importance of consumer access to the CDR:

“When banks or energy retailers don’t provide accurate data, consumers can’t take advantage of CDR products and services to compare products, find better deals, manage their finances or make informed decisions about product switching” 

ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe

Microsoft 

Alleged misleading or deceptive conduct related to consumer personal and family subscriptions 

As we discussed in our chapter on Cost of Living, the ACCC has commenced Federal Court proceedings against Microsoft Australia and Microsoft Corporation (collectively Microsoft) for allegedly engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct in breach of the ACL, with approximately 2.7 million customers, with its concise statement being filed on 27 October 2025. The ACCC alleges that, when announcing Copilot would be integrated into its Microsoft Personal and Family subscriptions, Microsoft deliberately omitted a third option, of which customers should have been made aware, allegedly to minimise customer churn due to consumers opting out of the Copilot integration and higher subscription prices. Specifically, the option for consumers to retain their current subscription at the original price. Microsoft is defending the claim and a trial is expected by 2027.

With the increased, widespread integration of AI tools into existing products and services, this enforcement action demonstrates the ACCC’s continuing commitment to regulating challenges in the digital environment (even as the nature of that environment evolves) and may have significant impacts on the technology industry. The case represents something of a test case on the obligation of businesses to provide full pricing transparency to their customers and the overlap between current consumer protections and unfair practices, which are not currently prohibited.

Google 

$55m penalty for anti-competitive conduct related to pre-installation of Google apps on Android Devices 

As covered in our chapter on Cartel and anti-competitive conduct, whilst the ACCC had already accepted undertakings from telecommunications providers on 18 August 2025, the ACCC accepted a further s87B undertaking from Google LLC and Google Asia Pacific (collectively Google). In this undertaking, Google admitted that its commercial arrangements with the major telco’s were likely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition.  In addition, Google committed to removing certain pre-installation and default search engine restrictions from Android contracts. On 2 December 2025, the Federal Court ordered Google to pay $55 million in penalties for this anti-competitive conduct. 

Other regulatory 

Digital Platform Services Inquiry (Final Report) 

On 23 June 2025, the ACCC released the final report of its Inquiry focused on competition and consumer issues arising from international regulatory developments, major developments in digital platform markets, and the identification of potential or emerging issues. The final report put forward several key findings, including that: 

• digital platform services are increasingly important to Australian consumers and businesses as major drivers of productivity growth; 
   
• there continues to be a risk of consumer and competition-related harm on digital platforms of all sizes;
   
• the current legislative framework is insufficient and regulatory reform is required to address the range and scale of consumer and competition harms emerging in digital platform markets; and
   
• coherent international reform and laws are needed to protect consumers and increase digital market competition. 

In its final report, the ACCC proposed two new recommendations, namely that the Government: 

• direct the ACCC to continue to monitor emerging digital technologies under the proposed digital competition regime; and
   
• prioritise a ‘whole-of-government approach’ to digital platform regulation and endorse the Digital Platform Regulators Forum (DP-REG) as a permanent forum. 

In its media release, the ACCC emphasised that: 

“While these [digital platform] services have brought many benefits, they have also created harms that our current competition and consumer laws cannot adequately address. This is why we continue to recommend that targeted regulation of digital platform services is needed to increase competition and innovation, and protect consumers in digital markets,” 

ACCC Chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb

The final report also considered the potential and emerging competition issues surrounding generative AI, noting that several sector trends may affect competition dynamics, such as high levels of vertical integration and the continued release of proprietary and open-source models. The ACCC also stated that consumers may be affected by this competition, namely through reduced innovation and higher prices.

Scam Prevention Framework 

On 21 February 2025, the Scams Prevention Framework Act 2025 (Cth) commenced, amending the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) alongside other related acts. These amendments introduced the Scams Prevention Framework (SPF), under which regulated entities in the initial sectors of banking, telecommunications, and digital platforms must comply with overarching principles of governance, prevention, detection, reporting, disruption, and response. In time, the SPF will also be supported by sector-specific codes. The ACCC will be the regulator for digital platforms, holding responsibility for the codes and enforcement action.

Under the SPF, regulated entities are required to “document and implement governance arrangements to combat scams” and “take reasonable steps” to adhere to the overarching principles, which are assessed based on size, services, customer base, scam risks, and compliance with SPF code obligations. The SPF further requires each regulated entity to have internal and external dispute resolution mechanisms and to implement a two-tier civil penalty framework based on the severity of the contravention. 

Assessment against enforcement priorities 

At the start of 2025, the ACCC announced that its oversight of the digital economy would prioritise promoting competition and trust in digital markets, robustly enforcing the CDR, addressing scams, and measuring emerging harms arising from AI and platform design. The publication of the Digital Platforms Services Inquiry Final Report and the introduction of the Scams Prevention Framework reflect progress against these aims. The actions taken against NAB, Google and Microsoft demonstrate that CDR enforcement, anticompetitive conduct, and (potentially) unfair practices in platform design are actionable under the current law. However, some prescribed categories have seen little activity, with limited formal proceedings and little visible activity under market studies beyond the DP Report. 

In 2025, the ACCC has maintained its focus on prioritising competition, product safety, and consumer and fair trading issues within the digital economy, with a specific focus on misleading or deceptive advertising. This is principally due to the critical nature of digital platform services in driving economic productivity and, in turn, the multifaceted risks they pose, including physical and economic harm as well as a decline in consumer trust. Having said that, questions remain about the regulator’s enforcement capacity, given competing demands for implementing the new merger regime and other resourcing its other responsibilities. To the extent that the ACCC said it would focus on misleading and deceptive advertising in digital markets and on protecting consumers from malicious AI operators, visible activity by the ACCC to date has been modest. 

Looking forward

In 2026, we predict that the ACCC will continue its commitment to promoting competition, consumer and fair trading issues within the digital economy and will focus on enforcement under the SPF. In doing so, the existing rules and regimes will be tested, and new enforcement action will be taken concerning misleading and deceptive conduct online and, possibly (though less likely at this early stage) for claims involving the misuse of AI. 

In addition, we will see:

• Codes under the Scams Prevention Framework will be finalised for the digital sector, and the ACCC will bring its first enforcement actions for Code breaches.
   
• We anticipate additional infringement notices and proceedings against banks or other data holders as the CDR regime is extended to energy, telco and potentially other sectors; penalties will increase to cement compliance norms.
   
• Following the Treasury’s Review of AI and the Government’s National AI Plan, the ACCC may seek to test the scope of current ACL protections to address AI-driven misrepresentations, deepfakes and algorithmic discrimination.
   
• The ACCC will continue to advocate for the passage of targeted Digital Platforms regulation and the establishment of a permanent DP-Reg forum.
   
• There will be several investigations and some prosecutions into dark patterns and algorithmic pricing focussing on opaque consent mechanisms, subscription traps and personalised pricing algorithms that may breach the ACL or Competition and Consumer Act.