The ACCC will instead focus on the more local digital giant problems, such as the News Media Bargaining Code and the new adtech inquiry.
The chair of Australia’s competition watchdog has said any work attempting to essentially structurally separate large tech giants, which could potentially undo many of the acquisitions undertaken over the last few years, would be left to its counterparts in the United States. The call to effectively break up Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google came at the conclusion of the United States House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee’s probe into the four digital giants, with its 450-page report in October making a slate of recommendations, including those it said would strengthen antitrust laws and restore competition in the digital economy. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chair Rod Sims said these calls were “very much an issue for the US to deal with”. “I certainly met with Representative Cicilline, who was the chair of that report, when I was last in Washington… we ourselves are in touch with all the major international competition agencies and regulators on these issues,” Sims told the House Standing Committee on Economics on Wednesday. “Breaking them up is more an issue for the US, but you just don’t know — personally, I wouldn’t want that to distract from attention on all the other problems that we should be dealing with now, and it could be a big distraction if that’s all we’re focused on, we’re [going to] miss a hell of a lot else.
