Australia: Proposed reforms to Australian merger laws include special rules for large digital platforms

On 27 August 2021, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced several proposals for reforms of Australia's merger laws. Besides a proposed consolidation of the current multi-channel merger review process to a single process, the ACCC also put forward adjustments of the substantive merger test as well as a unique merger review process for large digital platforms. The latter would include both lower thresholds for the establishment of competitive harm as well as the duty of notification. To balance these lower thresholds out, the merger review process would only apply to very specific large digital platforms by narrowing down the scope of application. These reforms form part of the digital platforms services inquiry, with a (third) report on the proposed reforms expected by September 2022.