ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb has revealed the corporate watchdog’s priorities for 2025, which include retail pricing, merger reform implementation and promoting competitive markets.
Speaking at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event in Sydney this week, Cass-Gottlieb stressed the positive impacts of a competitive economy for consumers.
“The ACCC‘s complementary mandates support the community to participate with trust and confidence in commercial life and promote the proper functioning of Australian markets,” Cass Gottlieb said. “We will continue to pursue our priorities through strong enforcement action, education to foster compliance, and advocacy for reform.”
“Consumers are still doing it tough, and the cost of groceries and essential services have contributed to significant cost of living stress.”
Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC would conduct dedicated investigations and enforcement activities to address competition and consumer concerns in the supermarket and retail sector in the year ahead.
One priority will be to address consumer and fair trading concerns, with a focus on misleading pricing practices including around surcharging.
Another priority is to focus on firms with market power and conduct that impacts small business or contributes to higher prices for consumers.
“Our work will also address the potential imbalance of power more broadly between larger businesses that impose standard form contracts on one hand, and small businesses and consumers on the other as reflected in our priority on unfair contract terms in consumer and small business contracts,” Cass-Gottlieb said.
The ACCC reported that market concentration is a growing challenge across the Australian economy, not just in supermarkets and retail, but also in aviation, digital platforms, and many essential services.
Australian consumers and small businesses are likely to feel the impact of any anti-competitive conduct in essential services on price, choice and quality of services, so the watchdog confirmed it will continue to prioritise promoting competition in essential services with a focus on telecommunications, electricity, and gas through 2025 and 2026.
In addition, the ACCC will aim to address misleading surcharging practices and other add-on costs.
“We have previously taken enforcement action against merchant surcharging that exceeds the cost of card acceptance,” Cass-Gottlieb said. “In the year ahead, our work will focus on increasing business compliance with the excessive card payment surcharging prohibition, and improving pricing practices to ensure all add on costs are appropriately disclosed.”
The final and ongoing priority is addressing anti-competitive agreements and practices, misuse of market power and cartel conduct.
After the passing of new merger legislation last year, voluntary notification of mergers will begin from July 1, 2025, ahead of the new regime coming into effect from January 1, 2026.
“We acknowledge the challenges navigating this period and are committed to working with the community during the transition,” Cass-Gottlieb said.
“Successfully and efficiently implementing the reform to the merger regime, promoting compliance with the new regime, and taking enforcement action, where necessary, will be a significant focus for us in the coming year.”
In addition to these key priorities, the ACCC will continue its work on product safety, consumer and fair trading issues in the digital economy, with a focus on misleading or deceptive advertising within influencer marketing, online reviews, in-app purchases and unsafe consumer products.
The focus on consumer, fair trading and competition concerns in relation to environmental claims and sustainability will also continue, with a new emphasis on greenwashing, as will a range of other priorities.
“In the year ahead, as we progress the priorities I have outlined today, we will continue to use our full range of tools and powers available under Australia’s Competition and Consumer Act and the Australian Consumer Law, and to exercise our enforcement powers independently, in the public interest, and with integrity and professionalism,” Cass-Gottlieb said.
“We will also continue, as always, to remain clear eyed in our purpose to enhance competition across our economy, to promote the welfare of consumers and small businesses and to make markets work for all Australians.”