The proposed notification thresholds remain essentially unchanged from those released by Treasury in October 2024. The draft forms include short form and long form versions, with the short form version intended to provide a simplified process for acquisitions that are unlikely to raise competition concerns. However, in draft guidance, the ACCC has indicated it will set the bar quite low for when a long form notification is required.
ASIC has released a draft regulatory guide alongside a consultation paper intended to help providers of Buy Now Pay Later services understand the modified responsible lending obligations and requirements.
On 4 March 2025, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released transitional guidelines to help businesses navigate the transition to the new mandatory and suspensory merger control regime which comes into force on 1 January 2026.
The Guidelines set out details on key dates and processes for how the ACCC will manage merger clearance reviews during the transition period. The ACCC is encouraging businesses to voluntarily notify transactions under the new regime from 1 July 2025 to avoid the potential need for re-notification if the ACCC is unable to complete its review in time.
On 18 February 2025, ASIC commenced consultation on proposals to:
1. provide additional relief for Australian financial services and credit licensees from reporting certain breaches of the misleading and deceptive conduct (MDC) provisions and certain contraventions of civil penalty provisions (CPPs); and
2. consolidate this additional relief and the relief in ASIC Corporations and Credit (Breach Reporting — Reportable Situations) Instrument 2024/620 (ASIC Instrument 2024/620) into a single instrument.
The proposals, as further described in CS 16, aim to reduce the reporting burden on Australian financial services and credit licensees. ASIC’s rationale for the changes is, under the current reportable situations regime, some reports of MDC and CPP breaches have been of minimal intelligence value to ASIC.
On 20 February 2025, the Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Gina Cass-Gottlieb, announced the ACCC’s compliance and enforcement priorities for 2025/26 at the annual address to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. Ms Cass-Gottlieb identified a range of industry sectors, as well as specific competition and consumer law issues that will be the focus of the ACCC’s compliance and enforcement activities for 2025/26. Many of these areas continue from last year.
Following the recent adoption of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) (“AML/CTF Amendment Act”), AUSTRAC has now turned its attention to amending the current AML/CTF Rules in order to provide clarity and guidance in relation to the significant changes to the AML/CTF regime.
AUSTRAC has released the first Exposure Draft, which details the proposed amendments to the AML/CTF Rules (“New Rules”) and have invited industry feedback on the contents of the Exposure Draft. AUSTRAC has aimed to construct the New Rules in a way which provides clarity to reporting entities with regard to their AML/CTF obligations and removes overly prescriptive and rigid requirements, as well as granting reporting entities with flexibility in the way they comply with their AML/CTF obligations.
The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) received Royal Assent on 10 December 2024.
These changes have been referred to as the “Tranche 1” of amendments to Australia’s privacy laws, with the majority of the changes taking effect on 11 December 2024.
On 10 December 2024, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Responsible Buy Now Pay Later and Other Measures) Act 2024 (Cth) (“BNPL Act”) received royal assent. The BNPL Act contains 6 Schedules that respectively amend a range of statutes including relevantly the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth) which regulates the industry of BNPL products. Providers of BNPL products have six months before this new regulatory framework commences to apply for, or vary an existing Australian credit license as well as update their procedures, policies and contracts.
On 4 December 2024, ASIC released Consultation Paper 381: Updates to INFO 225 Digital Assets: Financial Products and Services (“CP 381”), offering substantial proposed updates to the existing Information Sheet 225: Crypto Assets (“INFO 225”). These proposed updates include providing additional guidance on digital assets, the inclusion of worked examples and transitional relief for businesses who are in the process of applying for one or more licenses from ASIC. ASIC seeks feedback on the updates proposed in CP 381, with plans to finalize INFO 225 by mid-2025.
On 10 December 2024, the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024 (Cth) received royal assent. This legislation makes material amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and brings about significant reform to Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regime.
These amendments have sought to close key legislative gaps and better align Australia’s AML/CTF regime with the international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.