The ACCC is coming for ad tech, digital platform competition reform
Australia is preparing an ex ante competition regime targeting dominant digital platforms. Ad tech and app marketplaces are first in line. Penalties up to 30% of turnover.
Australia is preparing an ex ante competition regime targeting dominant digital platforms. Legislation is expected in 2026. The ACCC will gain powers to designate platforms, monitor compliance, and enforce obligations. Ad tech and app marketplaces are first in line.
Penalties top out at the greater of AUD 50 million, three times the benefit gained, or 30% of turnover.
The background
The ACCC’s Digital Platform Services Inquiry ran from 2020 to 2025. Its final report, released in June 2025, recommended a sector-specific regime for digital platforms. The government consulted on competition law reform proposals between December 2024 and February 2025.
This follows the News Media Bargaining Code (2021), which the government has acknowledged has not delivered long-term sustainability for Australian media (a polite way of saying it didn’t work). The proposed regime is broader, more structural, and more enforcement-oriented. The legislative architecture is closer to the EU’s Digital Markets Act than to anything Australia has tried before.
What could change for advertising
The regime could mandate interoperability requirements in ad tech, restrict self-preferencing by platforms in their own advertising marketplaces, cap app store commissions, and increase transparency in digital advertising supply chains.
For marketers, the implications are potentially significant. More transparency in programmatic buying could reveal margin structures that are currently opaque. Mandated interoperability could create new options for ad tech infrastructure. Restrictions on self-preferencing could change the competitive dynamics of Google’s and Meta’s advertising ecosystems (in ways that, IMO, the duopoly will resist hard).
For analytics, mandated data sharing or interoperability could change how performance data flows between platforms and advertisers. If platforms are required to provide more granular data on a structured basis, measurement accuracy improves, with direct attribution and bidding implications.
What to do now
This is not yet legislated, and the timing depends on the parliamentary cycle. The direction, though, is clear, and the ACCC’s recommendations are on the public record.
For marketing leaders, the strategic action is to reduce concentration risk. Organisations heavily dependent on a single platform for advertising (Google or Meta) are most exposed to structural changes in how those platforms operate. Diversifying across discovery surfaces, investing in owned channels, and building first-party data assets are hedges against regulatory disruption. They are also good practice in their own right.
For procurement and finance teams, the ad tech supply chain transparency that may follow is worth monitoring. If programmatic margin structures become visible, the negotiating dynamics with agencies and DSPs change. That is a procurement question, not a marketing one.