ACCC releases 2024 enforcement priorities

The ACCC’s enforcement focus is guided by cost of living pressures and seeks to address the impact of anti-competitive conduct and contraventions of the Australian Consumer Law on the ordinary and reasonable consumer. The address to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia highlights the ACCC’s litigation and broader enforcement focus for the next 12 months. Whilst the ACCC will continue to have a broad interest in anti-competitive arrangements and cartel conduct across all industries, the focus on competition and consumer issues in supermarket and aviation sectors, as well as an ongoing focus on other key consumer sectors such as telecommunications, electricity, gas and financial services reflects a focus on industries which a large percentage of Australian consumers interact with.

Key takeaways from the ACCC’s 2024-25 enforcement priorities include:

1. Cost of living pressures remain – price increases across essential goods and services, such as housing, food and groceries, energy prices and financial services underpin the ACCC’s focus on consumers and, in particular, those segment of consumers who are vulnerable to the effects of anti-competitive conduct.
    
2. Environmental claims and sustainability, a cautionary tale – as Australia continues a transition to a net zero economy, the ACCC is continuing its compliance and enforcement focus on misleading environmental claims. The ACCC has noted the consideration of sustainability public benefit claims in recent authorisation applications. The ACCC has already published principles-based guidance for businesses making environmental claims. It has announced that this year it will publish guidance on the consideration of public benefits associated with the energy transition and improvements to sustainability in the context of authorisations.
    
3. Supermarkets and aviation sectors to the forefront – the ACCC will prioritise competition, fair trading, consumer protection and pricing issues in the supermarket and aviation sectors. The ACCC Chair referenced the 12-month inquiry into competition in the supermarket and grocery sector. The ACCC also indicated that it has been closely considering allegations of false or misleading conduct in respect of supermarket advertising. The ACCC considers that with the introduction of new competition on various routes that Australia stands at a critical point in relation to the opportunity for increased competition in the aviation industry. The ACCC will also continue to monitor prices, costs and profits in the supply of domestic air passenger transport under its regular reporting regime.
    
4. In line with the cost of living focus, the ACCC will continue to build on the work it has done in the telecommunications, electricity, gas and financial services industries, including:
   • enforcing new gas market regulations and continuing to review compliance with the cap on wholesale gas prices;
   • through the recommendations made for improving transparency and clarity in retail deposit products and other financial products through the Retail Deposits Inquiry; and
   • monitoring and enforcing misleading conduct in energy and telecommunication sectors, in particular on pricing and product claims.
      
5. Digital economy and video games – the ACCC will have a continued focus on consumer protection in the digital economy. This year it has called out the video game industry as being a particular area of focus including in respect of the offering of in-app purchases.  More broadly, the ACCC is considering competition and consumer law aspects of influencer marketing, online reviews and price comparison tools.

Broader consumer law issues, such as unfair contract terms, consumer guarantees and consumer product safety issues for young children will continue to be enforcement priorities for the ACCC in 2024-2025. The ACCC noted, in particular, concerns regarding business compliance with consumer guarantee obligations and highlighted its view that the consumer guarantee provisions should be subject to pecuniary penalties which would improve compliance and provide an additional enforcement tool to the ACCC.

Consistent with prior practice, the ACCC reconfirmed its position that some forms of conduct are so detrimental as to be regarded as long-term priorities, including: