After a long study period, Australia’s anti-trust body has proposed a series of new laws, regulations, and penalties intended to constrain Apple, Google, and others.
Apple and Google have both previously protested against the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) antitrust investigations, and most recently Google was fined $40 million by the regulator for location tracking. Now the ACCC has published what it calls an interim report, and which calls for extensive regulatory reform.
Read more: Australian Watchdog Wants Big Tech to Share Misinformation Data
“Our analysis has identified significant consumer and competition harms across a range of digital platform services,” writes the ACCC in the full report. “These include financial losses to scams and unresolved disputes, reduced choice and an inability to make informed choices, reduced innovation and quality, and higher (monetary and non-monetary) prices.”
“The conduct causing these harms is widespread, entrenched, and systemic,” it continues. “The ACCC has observed high levels of concentration and entrenched market power in relation to app store (Google and Apple), search (Google), ad tech (Google) and social media (Meta) services.”
