The ACCC’s adtech and ad agency services inquiry efforts are officially underway, with the industry watchdog calling for feedback and information from Australia’s digital advertising supply chain and services ecosystem.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today released an issues paper and fact sheet for the Ad Tech Inquiry, and is seeking comment from buyers as well as sellers of digital display advertising, along with social media platforms, website owners, adtech services companies, app developers and advertising and media agencies.
The call for information comes a month after Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, announced the Digital Platform Services Inquiry, a five-year plan to investigate the whole digital advertising landscape. Headed by the newly created digital platforms branch sitting within the ACCC, the inquiry reflects the additional powers the ACCC has been given to investigate and regulate Australia’s online advertising landscape following the Digital Platforms Inquiry report released in July last year.
And as part of the latest Ad Tech Inquiry information gathering process, the ACCC said it will use its compulsory information-gathering powers to access information from market participants that’s not publicly available. An interim report is due by the end of the year, with the final report expected to land in August 2021.
“This inquiry will allow the ACCC to assess whether these advertising and adtech markets are operating effectively and importantly, gauge whether they are working well for a range of different stakeholders,” ACCC chair, Rod Sims, said.
