Australia’s competition watchdog has launched another market study into digital platforms, as its latest probe examines the “expanding ecosystems” of Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission published a 19-page issues paper today seeking feedback from stakeholders on the ecosystems created by large digital platforms, including how products and services interconnect and the subsequent effects on competition.
“Australian consumers and businesses are increasingly reliant on the products and services offered by digital platforms so it’s crucial we examine how these companies are expanding their reach,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
The study is part of the authority’s five-year digital platform services inquiry, which runs through March 2025 and requires the ACCC to submit reports to the government every six months on various issues in the online economy.
The ACCC noted that Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft are involved in a wide range of sectors, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, education, health and fitness, media streaming, gaming and financial technology.
The inquiry will include studying the various products and services offered by the major platforms, as well as the relationship between services within their individual ecosystems.
Cass-Gottlieb said the agency wants to hear about consumer experiences using the platforms “and how they also use other related consumer cloud storage services and smart home devices within a digital platform ecosystem”.
The ACCC chair said that the large platforms have access to substantial user databases and personal information through their ecosystems. She said the report will assess how they can leverage data to prevent businesses from entering and competing in certain sectors.
The authority will also investigate the expansion strategies used by digital platforms and whether they have impacted interoperability of products and services across ecosystems, increased consumer lock-in behaviours or included other conduct such as bundling, tying or self-preferencing to restrict competition.
Cass-Gottlieb said interconnected products, such as smart home devices and cloud storage options, can generate efficiencies and benefit consumers by simplifying everyday tasks.
“But it’s important that competition and consumers are not harmed as digital platforms invest across different sectors and technologies and expand their reach,” Cass-Gottlieb added.
The ecosystem study is the latest probe the ACCC has launched as part of its five-year digital platform inquiry.
The ACCC published a report in November calling for legally binding codes of conduct to address anticompetitive self-preferencing, tying, exclusivity and data advantages in the digital economy.
The authority raised concerns last April that the algorithms used by the country’s top online marketplaces could be designed to preference their own products to the detriment of rival sellers.
In October 2021, the ACCC recommended the introduction of a mandatory choice screen to provide consumers with a selection of search engines to address Google’s dominance in the market.
The watchdog also found in April 2021 that Apple and Google are dominant distributors of mobile apps and recommended they provide consumers with greater choice to change pre-installed applications and allow developers to offer alternative payment options.
In addition, the ACCC launched an inquiry last August into the state of competition for social media services, including how businesses use display advertising, sponsored posts and paid influencers to engage with and advertise to consumers.
This wave of studies followed the agency’s initial digital platforms inquiry, which culminated in a landmark report in 2019. The ACCC concluded at the time that Google and Facebook have “substantial market power” in multiple online markets.
