Credit: Christin Hume via Unsplash
Australia’s digital regulators have formalised a tighter way of working together, setting out how they will share information and coordinate responses across competition, privacy, online safety and consumer protection issues affecting digital platforms.
The Digital Platform Regulators Forum, made up of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Australian Communications and Media Authority, the eSafety Commissioner and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, has signed a memorandum of understanding to formalise cooperation on digital platform oversight.
The agreement sets out how regulators will share information (where legally permitted), monitor platform activity and coordinate responses to emerging risks including scams, privacy breaches, online safety harms and competition concerns linked to large digital platform operators.
While each regulator will continue to operate independently, the MoU is designed to reduce fragmentation across agencies and support more consistent approaches to platform regulation as digital services converge across advertising, communications and data.
DP-REG said the aim is to strengthen regulatory coherence across a rapidly evolving sector where issues frequently overlap.
“The agreement recognises the impact of coordinated regulatory approaches to address these shared challenges more effectively,” the forum said.
The push for closer regulatory alignment comes as enforcement ramps up across scam-prone digital channels.
The ACMA is rolling out new SMS sender ID rules from July, requiring businesses and organisations to register branded sender IDs or risk having messages labelled “Unverified” on devices.
The change targets impersonation scams that often mimic well-known brands.
DP-REG was established in 2022 to support collaboration between regulators working across competition, communications, privacy and online safety, with a focus on emerging risks in the digital platform economy.
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