Clifford Chance

On 23 June, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released their tenth and final report (Report) of its 5-year Digital Platform Services Inquiry (DPSI) concluding a total 8 years of ACCC's investigation into digital platforms, across 3 inquiries, 14 reports, and 35 recommendations. The ACCC received and considered around 293 public submissions over the course of the DPSI.

Throughout the DPSI, the ACCC published 10 interim reports, each covering a topic such as social media, search engines, app marketplaces and mobile operating systems (OS), online retail marketplaces, ad tech, online private messaging, and data services. The Report delivers its overall conclusion that while digital platforms have (and will continue to) deliver many benefits, they are also likely to deliver serious competition and consumer risks. Risks that the Report argues Australia's current laws are ill-equipped to face.

Final Report

Given the existing body of work published by the ACCC through the DPSI, the Final Report serves as a capstone to the inquiry by discussing:

• Recent overseas developments: The Report reviewed regulatory frameworks such as the EU Digital Markets Act, UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and ongoing initiatives in the US, Japan, South Korea and India and noted that overseas jurisdictions have acknowledged that existing competition tools remain ill-suited and slow against digital markets' rapidly evolving nature. The Report summarises that an ex-ante regime is necessary in Australia, supporting the Australian Government's current consultation on the Digital Competition Regime. 
• Major developments and key trends: The Report updates previous ACCC findings in relation to online private messaging, app marketplaces and mobile OS, online retail marketplaces, and ad tech. It observed that some platforms continue to play a central role in app distribution and mobile OS ecosystems and that certain platforms have implemented changes overseas in response to regulatory reforms which have not been extended to Australia. The Report reiterated the ACCC's previous observations that ad tech should be a priority service regulated under the foreshadowed Digital Competition Regime. In online retail, the Report noted that not a single marketplace holds a key position in Australia but warned that hybrid marketplaces can foster self-preferencing conduct. 
• Emerging trends: The Report identified potential competition concerns in cloud computing and generative artificial Intelligence (AI), while also noting consumer concerns in online gaming. The Report largely relied on findings made by other foreign regulators (in particular, the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK and its findings from its market study into cloud services) as the foundation for its concerns. The Report also found that Generative AI was a burgeoning sector with developers exploring new ways to train and scale various forms of AI, including smaller models and both open source and proprietary models. The Report broadly flagged risks could emerge as generative AI tools become more integrated into commercial operations, including algorithmic coordination, access to data, and transparency in automated decision-making.

Key Findings and Recommendations

The conclusion of the Report is clear – despite incremental changes, the ACCC believes that Australia's current laws cannot adequately deal with the harms arising from such a fast-evolving industry. 

While the Report found that digital platform services are critically important to Australian consumers and businesses and are a major contributor to economic and productivity growth, the Report presented key focus areas:

• Ongoing Consumer Harms: While there has been an enactment of the Scams Prevention Framework Act 2025 and progress from large platforms to mitigate unfair and harmful practices since identified in DPSI's fifth interim report, Australians continue to face these practices online, with the widespread use of manipulative practices ('dark patterns') used to trick users into subscriptions or sharing data, the use of fake and misleading reviews, scams, undisclosed sponsored content and problematic in-app purchase mechanisms. As 72% of Australian consumers surveyed by the ACCC reported that they had encountered potentially unfair practices when shopping online. 
• Limited Resolution Options for Users and Businesses: The Report identified strong public support of over 80% for an independent ombudsman to handle disputes with platforms due to limited recourse options. Underpinning a call for better internal dispute resolution processes and an external Digital Platforms Ombudsman.
• Dominant Platforms and Anti-Competitive Conduct: The Report found that a small number of large digital platforms maintain "gatekeeper" power over key services and often engage in conduct that limits competition. These platforms have the propensity to engage in conduct such as self-preferencing their own products and services, exclusivity agreements, and impediments to customer switching and interoperability. This lack of competition can limit growth opportunities for other platforms, stifle innovation, reduce consumer choice and lead to higher prices. 
• International momentum: Current Australian competition law, which reacts after harm, is too slow and ineffective to address the dynamic digital markets especially as evolving digital markets and emerging technologies (like cloud computing and generative AI) are likely to exacerbate existing risks or give rise to new ones.  Australian laws need to keep pace and follow the broad international consensus for ex ante digital competition regulation.

DPSI Recommendation Tracker

To bring Australian laws in line with international reform and ensure it is fit to tackle potential consumer and competition issues within digital platform services, the inquiry has identified 6 key recommended measures for the Government to implement (with the first 4 having been recommended in the 2022 Regulatory Reform Report). 

With further potential measures suggested to address and mitigate consumer harm in relation to online gaming.

Next Steps

The final report is a culmination of years of analysis, effectively providing the Government with a detailed reform blueprint to bring Australia in line with overseas jurisdictions. With the final report now delivered, it remains on the Government to respond. The Report has been with the Government for review since March 2025, with Recommendation 5 already incorporated into the Treasury's proposed framework for a digital competition regime, and Recommendation 6 mirroring the UK's Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum, alongside the proposed new unfair trading protections for small businesses – it is evident that significant shifts to cementing an ex-ante regime for Australia are underway.

For businesses, this shift to overseas alignment importantly means that multinational tech firms can adopt global compliance strategies which will soften adjustments to Australia's evolving regulations. However, it is pertinent that businesses which offer services in the digital space should proactively monitor the developments and prepare to implement changes necessary to ensure compliance.