Small steps before a giant leap: ACCC proposals for ex ante digital platform regulation

In its fifth Digital Platforms Services Inquiry (DPSI) report, the ACCC proposes potentially sweeping legislative reforms intended to tackle potential anticompetitive conduct and consumer law contraventions by digital platforms.

Its key recommendations are the introduction of:

• a general prohibition on unfair trading practices, for which the ACCC has been advocating for some time;
  
  
• targeted measures to protect consumers who use digital platforms, including mandatory processes to prevent and remove scams, harmful apps and fake reviews, mandatory internal dispute resolution processes, and an ombudsman; and
  
  
• 'service-specific' mandatory codes of conduct for 'designated' digital platforms with targeted obligations to prevent a range of anticompetitive conduct including self-preferencing, tying and exclusivity arrangements, and impediments to interoperability.