ACCC Targets Cryptocurrency Risks, Supermarket Practices, and Competition Failures

Australia's competition watchdog outlines 2025-26 priorities, including scams, supermarket pricing, and aviation duopolies, with new funding and powers to bolster enforcement.

• The ACCC expressed concerns over potential consumer harm from relaxed cryptocurrency regulations in the US, linking such changes to increased investment scams in Australia.
• Australian consumers lost over $1.3 billion to investment scams in 2023, with cryptocurrency playing a significant role in these schemes.
• The regulator criticized the lack of competition in Australia's aviation sector, highlighting rising airfares following the collapse of Rex Airlines and Bonza Airlines in 2024.
• Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths face ongoing scrutiny and litigation over alleged fake discounts and 'shrinkflation,' as the ACCC prepares its final report on the sector's concentration.
• New merger laws, effective January 2026, will require companies to notify the ACCC of significant deals, aiming to prevent anti-competitive market concentration.

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The Sydney Morning Herald Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Guardian