On 18 March 2022, the government announced that it has opened consultation on digital economy regulation settings in Australia. The government is seeking feedback on regulatory frameworks, particularly in relation to automated decision making and artificial intelligence.

In March 2022, Australian Securities & Investments Commission published a response to submissions received to its consultation on review of the ePayments Code. In its response, ASIC proposed various revisions to the current voluntary code, including that scam payments will no longer be regarded as “mistaken internet payments” and reporting requirements for unauthorized transactions will change.

On 28 February 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission opened a public consultation on options for legislative reform to address concerns relating to the perceived dominance of certain digital platform services in Australia. The consultation discussion paper outlines options for addressing potential perceived harms to competition, consumers, and business users across a range of digital platform services markets, such as the social media, search, app, online retail and ad tech markets.

To highlight data security and privacy laws and developments that are already in place, or in progress, in Africa, the new Baker McKenzie Africa Data Security and Privacy Guide outlines information on country-specific data privacy and security laws in 11 countries in Africa – Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe

Digital transformation is here to stay. Cloud services and the use of data are accelerating and DT programs evolving as businesses adapt to the current pandemic and position themselves to remain competitive. Data remains a crucial asset in the digital economy with its collection, storage, location, analysis and protection all critical to success. The latest Baker McKenzie Digital Transformation & Cloud Survey provides compelling insights on digital transformation trends.

The latest iteration of our annual Digital Transformation and Cloud Survey features insights from 500 global respondents, who cite heightened attention on and investment in cybersecurity, AI and the cloud as indicators of digital transformation being an integral part of enterprise thinking and planning. In this report, we provide these results together with insights from our almost decade of surveying the marketplace and thought leadership in digital transformation and cloud.

The Australian Treasury has released an exposure draft of legislation, which, if implemented, would require operators of electronic platforms to report to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) identification and payment information regarding the sellers that participate on their platforms (“Sellers”).

The pandemic has accelerated the pace of digitization as business leaders look for solutions to recover lost ground and plan for the road ahead. As the world races along this digitization path, the role of intellectual property in the global economy is becoming more significant.

The Australian Government has released comprehensive terms of reference and an issues paper (“Issues Paper”) as part of its long-awaited review of the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (“Privacy Act”). The review forms part of the government’s response in December 2019 to recommendations in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Digital Platforms Inquiry (“DPI Report”) to strengthen privacy laws in Australia. It marks the first of two papers seeking public input on the Privacy Act.

Contents Accelerated procurement procedures territory by territory Permissible direct awards across Australia Other options available to contracting authorities Critical goods and services Based on government procurement legislation, policies and government announcements as at the date of this publication, the following options are available to contracting authorities to procure goods, services,…