Tougher Rules and Smarter Surveillance: ACCC and AER FY2025 Report Signals What’s Coming Next

Merger reviews surge as new regime looms

The number of mergers reviewed by the ACCC jumped in FY2025 and, with mandatory merger notifications kicking in on 1 January 2026, the pace is accelerating.

In FY2025, the ACCC assessed 323 merger matters (up from 307 in FY2024), of which:

• 34 underwent public review, a 55% increase from FY2024;
• 289 were pre-assessed without a public review; and
• 99% were ultimately cleared by the ACCC, with the remainder being withdrawn or discontinued.

The ACCC also investigated 13 acquisitions that completed without informal clearance from the ACCC.

These figures don’t yet reflect ACCC reviews under the new merger notification regime, which entered a transitional voluntary phase on 1 July 2025 and will require a broad range of mergers and acquisitions to be mandatorily notified from 1 January 2026. The ACCC recently confirmed that it had already approved around 300 mergers in 4 months since 1 July 2025, some of which were re-filings.

Penalties fell, but litigation rose

Total penalties and fines dropped significantly:

• $181.35 million in court awarded penalties, down from $624.45 million in FY2024; and
• $625,310 in penalties for consumer, product safety and fair trading infringement notices, down from $958,850 in FY2024.

But don’t be fooled into thinking the ACCC has taken a softer stance. The regulator is not afraid to show its teeth, having initiated 17 court cases in FY2025, nearly double that in FY2024.

Landmark penalties for cartel conduct and consumer data right breaches

Although total penalties went down, FY2025 still saw a record $57.5 million penalty for cartel conduct ordered against steel manufacturer BlueScope for attempting to fix prices for flat steel products. BlueScope’s former general manager of sales and marketing, Jason Ellis, was personally fined $500,000.

The ACCC secured another win with a $751,200 penalty against National Australia Bank, the highest for alleged breaches of the Consumer Data Right (CDR) Rules. The ACCC issued four infringement notices to the bank after it allegedly failed to disclose credit limit data in response to requests made by different CDR accredited providers on behalf of consumers.

Scam disruption on a large scale

Some of the most striking achievements were made by the ACCC’s National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC), whose work resulted in:

• 5,860 scam websites shut down, a more than tenfold increase from FY2024;
• scam losses in Australia falling by more than 25% compared to the previous calendar year; and
• 23% less scam reports compared to FY2024, dropping from 288,604 to 223,360.

Product safety, recalls and button batteries under even closer scrutiny

Do your product safety and recall processes pass the ACCC’s test?

The ACCC’s “intelligence-led” approach to product safety yielded a sharp uptick in matters on its radar, with:

• 7,555 initial product safety reports being made to the ACCC through the ACCC Infocentre, mandatory and voluntary supplier reports, recall notifications and media monitoring, up 17% from 6,471 in FY2024;
• 2,770 mandatory reports assessed, up 14% from FY2024; and
• 148 Infocentre complaints and reports that triggered ACCC assessment or investigation, up from 137.

Although the number of voluntary recall notifications published by the ACCC this year stayed around the same level as FY2024 (265 and 264, respectively), the numbers show that the ACCC is increasingly interrogating the effectiveness of product recalls:

• 657 recalls were subject to performance review, up from 552; and
• 69 recalls were negotiated with suppliers to improve their performance, quadrupling last year’s figure.

Read our case study on the LG solar system battery recall to discover how a product recall can fall short (and how to avoid this).

The spike in recall reviews is only the beginning, especially for button battery-operated products. The ACCC has escalated the severity of enforcement action it is willing to take for non-compliance with the mandatory button battery standards. This year, the ACCC launched its first litigation for alleged breaches of these standards against City Beach, claiming that the retailer offered and supplied over 57,000 non-compliant products that were likely to be attractive to young children.

Performance metrics: Mixed results, but strong public support

The ACCC met or exceeded 11 of the 22 performance measures that it set for the key activities it undertakes to address competition and consumer issues, down from 15 out of 22 in FY2024. However, some areas fell short. For example, the ACCC only achieved three out of the targeted six competition enforcement interventions (e.g. by commencing court proceedings or reaching administrative resolutions). The number of consumer law and industry code investigations was also below expectations, with the ACCC only completing 43 out of the targeted 60 investigations.

Yet, stakeholder sentiment remained strong. According to a survey commissioned by the ACCC, 90% of key stakeholders agreed that the ACCC’s work benefits Australian consumers.

Looking ahead: Merger compliance, unfair trading and digital platforms

The ACCC is gearing up for:

• Mandatory merger notifications from 1 January 2026. The regulator has stated that promoting compliance will be a significant focus in 2025-26.
• A continued push for a prohibition on unfair trading practices, targeting conduct not currently captured by the Australian Consumer Law (see our article for guidance on the type of conduct this prohibition might cover).
• Further collaboration with the Australian Government on a new digital competition regime targeted at “designated” digital platforms to protect and foster competition in the digital platform services markets.

Need tailored advice on how the mandatory merger notification laws could impact your next deal, or how an unfair trading ban or digital competition regime could affect your business practices? Contact the Addisons Competition, Consumer & Antitrust team.