ACCC tasked with drawing up new open banking rules

The Consumer Data Right will allow consumers to get access to data held by businesses and share it with third parties, potentially making it easier to compare products or shift to a new service provider. The government has announced in 2017 that it would legislate a new Consumer Data Right as part of its response to the Productivity Commission’s data inquiry.

The Consumer Data Right will function according to the Treasury Laws Amendment Bill 2018, of which an exposure draft has been issued on the 15th of August 2018. The new framework will have three categories of participant: Consumers, data holders, and accredited data recipients.

The legislation also allows for the designation of a Data Standards Body that will support a Data Standards Chair in setting standards for the format and process by which Consumer Data Right data needs to be provided to a consumer. The ACCC and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner will be the key regulators of the new system; the former will be tasked with overseeing the system from a competition and consumer perspective, while the latter will be tasked with handling privacy-related complaints.