The article is co-authored by Tiffany Austin.
On 20 February 2025, now halfway through her initial tenure as Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Gina Cass-Gottlieb unveiled the ACCC’s 2025-26 compliance and enforcement priorities. The overarching theme of the priorities this year is addressing the growing challenge of market concentration in the Australian economy, spanning the supermarkets, retail and aviation sectors as well as many essential services including telecommunications, electricity and gas – sectors the ACCC views as having a significant impact on the cost of living and doing business in Australia.
Other priorities identified recognise the ongoing potential for digital transformation and disruption and the transition to net zero to open the door to misleading and deceptive conduct and consumer welfare issues. Greenwashing, for example, continues to be a key investigation and enforcement priority.
Overall, the themes for the upcoming year are fairly familiar. It is clear that another real focus of the ACCC over that period will be successfully implementing the changes to the merger control regime. In her speech announcing the priorities, Ms Cass-Gottlieb also took the opportunity to remind business of the impact the upcoming merger reforms will have on their activities. She also mentioned the ACCC’s continued advocacy for the introduction of a prohibition on ‘unfair trading practices’, to cover concerning business conduct that is not currently illegal, but distorts consumer decision-making, causing harm and eroding trust.
Some of the ACCC’s key enforcement and compliance priorities include:
- Misleading surcharging practices – this is a new priority, to address the imposition of misleading surcharges and other add-on costs which contribute to cost of living pressures. In 2024, the federal government allocated $2.1 million in new funding to the ACCC to tackle business compliance with excessive card surcharging and improving pricing practices to ensure all add-on costs are appropriately disclosed.
- Addressing competition and consumer issues in the supermarket and retail sector – the ACCC’s focus on this sector continues from last year.The ACCC will focus on both competition issues related to supermarkets’ market power and consumer issues, particularly misleading pricing practices. The ACCC’s inquiry into pricing, competition and emerging issues in Australia's supermarket sector continues. The ACCC noted that the preliminary analysis suggested the retail level of Australia’s supermarket industry is ‘highly concentrated’; not a surprising finding. The final report of the inquiry is expected to be provided to the federal government in the near future. The ACCC’s prosecution of Coles and Woolworths alleging illusory discounting practices is also ongoing.
- Greenwashing – the ACCC continues to prioritise identifying consumer and fair trading issues in relation to environmental claims and sustainability. Ms Cass-Gottlieb confirmed this means a focus on greenwashing where the ACCC will target misleading green claims aimed at consumers in a range of sectors including energy, food, fashion and homewares.
- Aviation – noting the recent entry and exit activity in this sector in 2024, the ACCC will continue to prioritise competition in the aviation industry, particularly as 2024 proved market concentration in this space harms consumers and prices. The ACCC is likely to have been pleased with the outcome of the recent tender for slot allocation services at Sydney Airport, given the impact on competition slot allocation plays in the sector. The Qantas/Virgin joint venture, Airport Coordination Australia, was displaced in that role for the first time since 1997 by rival bidder Airport Coordination Limited, which allocates slots at some of the world’s busiest and most complex airports including Heathrow and Dubai.
- Essential services – noting the cost of living and doing business has meant customers and small businesses are particularly vulnerable to anti-competitive conduct in essential services through impacts of price, choice and quality of services, the ACCC continues to prioritise promoting healthy competition in essential services with a focus on telecommunications, electricity and gas.
- Digital economy – ensuring consumer protection and fair trading in the digital economy continues to be a priority, with a focus on misleading or deceptive behaviour by influencers, online reviews, in-app purchases and unsafe consumer products. Ms Cass-Gottlieb also noted the ACCC will be working with Treasury toward implementing its proposed new digital competition regime.
- Unfair contract terms – unfair contract terms in consumer and small business contracts carries over as an enforcement priority. The ACCC will be particularly focusing on harmful cancellation terms, including automatic renewals, early termination fee clauses and non-cancellation clauses.
- Enduring priorities – some conduct is considered so harmful to consumers and competition that they remain enduring priorities of the ACCC, including cartel conduct, anti-competitive conduct, scams, product safety, and protecting vulnerable consumers, First Nation consumers, and the small business sector.
Implementing new merger control regime will be another key focus for the ACCC
The new merger regime will come into effect from 1 January 2026, however voluntary notification is available from 1 July 2025. The shift from a voluntary, judicially enforced model to a mandatory, administrative regime places the ACCC as the first instance decision-maker on each notified acquisition – a significant change to its operations for which the ACCC will have to prepare over the coming year. The ACCC will commence consultation on draft process guidelines and draft analytical guidelines before the end of March 2025 to assist businesses with the transition arrangements.
For further insights into the operation of the new merger control regime and how it may affect your business, please refer to our previous publication.
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