AGL recently responded to the Federal Governments exposure draft legislation to create a new Consumer Data Right (CDR) Framework.

The aim of the CDR Framework is to give consumers more access to, and control over their data. It will enable consumers to direct their data to accredited third parties (such as comparator websites) with the aim of improving innovation, competition and overall outcomes for consumers.

With the consumers consent, businesses will have greater access to data to help tailor products and personalise consumer experiences.

AGL support the Consumer Data Right principle as a fundamental human right but consider there should be some constraints on how broad this framework goes to ensure all consumer impacts are considered, and that competition is protected – including intellectual property, system design and process innovation.

For these reasons, we strongly recommend that the Federal Government take time to ensure that the broadening scope of the CDR Framework through this enabling legislation will not result in poor consumer outcomes including increased risks to privacy protection, data misuse or situations that may lead to the vulnerable consumers being worse off in the market.

AGL welcomes the opportunity to work with Treasury and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to ensure the best framework is developed for consumers and industry.

You can read AGL’s full submission here.