The final report for an inquiry into markets for the supply of digital platform services. Digital platform services covered by the inquiry include internet search engine services, social media services, online private messaging services, digital content aggregation platform services, media referral services and electronic marketplace services. It also covers digital advertising services supplied by digital platform service providers and the data practices of both digital platform service providers and data brokers.

The report examines the following three topics:

• recent international legislative and regulatory developments in digital competition regimes, unfair trading practices and dispute resolution
• major developments and key trends in online private messaging, app marketplaces and mobile operating systems, digital advertising technology services, and general online retail marketplaces
• potential and emerging competition and consumer issues in cloud computing, generative artificial intelligence, and online gaming.

Key recommendations

• The need for regulatory reform to address digital platform-related competition and consumer harms, and an economy-wide prohibition on unfair trading practices, as recommended in the Digital platform services inquiry: interim report no. 5 of the inquiry.
• The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) continue to have a monitoring function for emerging digital technologies under the proposed digital competition regime.
• The Australian Government prioritise a whole-of-government approach to digital platform regulation and endorse the Digital Platform Regulators Forum (DP-REG) as a permanent forum.