Australian policymakers love picking fights with American big tech, and the biff has now moved into the payments system.
The Standing Economics Committee ended its parliamentary inquiry last week with an eviscerating 146-page report targeting foreign tech companies. Chaired by Labor backbencher Ed Husic, the committee did not pull any punches.
It wants the ACCC to investigate the market power of “deeply anti-competitive” Apple, along with Visa and Mastercard. It encouraged the banks to challenge secretive Apple Pay fees under the threat of a boycott, namechecked Shopify for self-preferencing and chastised Google for refusing to take part in the process.
The report and its 16 recommendations represent one of the strongest interventions into Australian financial services in recent memory, with a clear mandate to shift power away from large multinationals. While ambitious in scope, it has a clear throughline, according to Husic.
