A complementary regulatory regime for digital platforms
Liza Carver
Competition Law Conference
Liza Carver, ‘A complementary regulatory regime for digital platforms’ (Competition Law Conference, Sydney, 6 May 2023)
Introduction
Competition law supports the integrity of markets, so businesses have the incentive to operate more efficiently, price competitively and offer better products and services to their customers. This benefits consumers, the economy, and the community more broadly, with lower prices, greater innovation, and higher quality goods and services.
As the national regulator responsible for enforcing compliance with the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA), in the 2021-22 financial year alone, we took action to address exclusive dealing in ice-creams, roof tiling bid-rigging, cartels in the pharmaceutical sector, alleged misuse of market power in card payments, in addition to actions in the power tools, money exchange, building supplies markets, and we resolved a misuse of market power investigation against Telstra with a court enforceable undertaking. Our focus is deterring anti-competitive and cartel conduct in Australia – regardless of the industry.
Our competition enforcement is supported, in no minor way, by our market inquiry functions. We started examining digital platform markets in 2017. The strength of our market inquiries is in their open and consultative processes in parallel with the use of compulsory information gathering powers.
Throughout three separate inquiries, we have looked at:
the impact of digital platforms on news and journalism content and advertising services markets in the Digital Platforms Inquiry, published in 2019
the supply of digital advertising technology services through the Ad Tech Inquiry, published in 2021
a range of other digital platform services including search, app stores, online private messaging services, online retail marketplaces, social media services, as well as our current report into the expanding ecosystems of digital platforms. All of this work has been under our ongoing Digital Platform Services Inquiry which ends in 2025. As part of this Inquiry, we also recommended regulatory reform to address the array of harms we have identified, in our September 2022 report.
I joined the ACCC as the Enforcement Commissioner 14 months ago after 24 years as a partner in leading commercial law firms. Over the last 14 months I have had the benefit of the considerable breadth and depth of expertise built up over 6 years through our digital platforms work and I have developed a direct and deep appreciation of the challenges of using our existing Part IV provisions to address competition harms in this space.
In the year of the 30th Anniversary of the Hilmer Inquiry, I have come to appreciate the significant limitations of our economy wide regime of ex post competition prohibitions enforced through Federal Court proceedings in addressing harms in digital platform markets.
This is the journey I want to take you on today.