ACCC Unveils 2025-26 Compliance Priorities

Every year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) identifies key areas to focus its compliance and enforcement work to promote competition among business, promote fair trading by business and protect consumers in their dealings with business.

The ACCC recently announced their 2025-26 Compliance and Enforcement priorities , with a key focus on issues of concern within the retail sector:

1. 1. Competition issues in the supermarket and retail sector, focussing on firms with market power and conduct that impacts small business.
   2. Consumer and fair trading concerns in the supermarket and retail sectors, with a focus on misleading pricing practices.
   3. Promoting competition in essential services with a focus on telecommunications, electricity, and gas.
   4. Misleading pricing and claims in relation to essential services, with a particular focus on energy and telecommunications.
   5. Competition and consumer issues in the aviation sector.
   6. Competition, product safety, consumer and fair trading issues in the digital economy, with a focus on misleading or deceptive advertising within influencer marketing, online reviews, in-app purchases and unsafe consumer products.
   7. Misleading surcharging practices and other add-on costs.
   8. Consumer, fair trading and competition concerns in relation to environmental claims and sustainability, with a focus on greenwashing.
   9. Unfair contract terms in consumer and small business contracts, with a focus on harmful cancellation terms, including those associated with automatic renewals, early termination fee clauses and non-cancellation clauses.
   10. Improving industry compliance with consumer guarantees, with a focus on consumer electronics.
   11. Improving compliance by NDIS providers with their obligations under Australian Consumer Law.
   12. Consumer product safety issues for young children, with a focus on compliance with button battery standards and raising awareness about new infant sleep and toppling furniture standards.

To achieve compliance objectives, the ACCC uses 4 flexible and integrated strategies:

1. 1. Encouraging compliance with the law, particularly by educating and informing consumers and traders about their rights and responsibilities under the Act
   2. Enforcement of the law, including resolution of possible contraventions both administratively and by litigation and other formal enforcement outcomes
   3. Undertaking market studies, or reporting on emerging competition or consumer issues with a view to identifying any market failures and how to address them, and to support and inform our compliance and enforcement measures and identify possible areas for policy consideration
   4. Working with other agencies to implement these strategies, including through coordinated approaches.

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