The Australian Federal Court fined Telstra Corporation Ltd (Telstra), Optus Internet Pty Limited (Optus), and TPG Internet Pty Ltd (TPG) a total of AUD$33.5 million for making false or misleading representations to consumers about certain internet plans under Australia’s national broadband network (NBN).
The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) headed the procedure. The court concluded the internet service providers breached the Australian Consumer Law by making false or misleading statements related to their 50Mbps or 100Mbps fibre to the node (FTTN) plans.
Telstra, Optus, and TPG admitted their false conduct to consumers and collaborated with the ACCC, making joint submissions to the court. The false or misleading statements affected about 120,000 consumers in 2019 and 2020.
On 11 November 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) published the fifth report of its Digital Platform Services Inquiry.
Regarding consumer issues, the report recommends the submission of digital platforms to mandatory dispute resolution processes and more substantial requirements to fight against scams, harmful apps, and fake reviews, among others. There is also a recommendation for new laws that would require digital platforms to, among other issues, provide processes for reporting scams, harmful apps, and fake reviews, publish review verification processes, and ensure that consumers and small businesses can access appropriate dispute resolution.
The report also proposes mandatory codes of conduct for some digital platforms and services to address competition issues. Besides the consumer and competition recommendations, the report further highlights the ACCC’s support for prohibiting economy-wide unfair trading practices.
Online choice architecture (OCA) describes the environment in which people act, including the presentation and placement of choices and the design of interfaces.
Published by UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) the discussion paper titled Online Choice Architecture: how digital design can harm competition and consumers provides an overview of OCA and its links with related concepts like ‘dark patterns’, the types of OCA practice that are prevalent, a taxonomy for OCA practices, and potential harms for consumers. The paper is illustrated by case studies of investigations conducted by CMA and others.
