ACCC finalises Consumer Data Right rules

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has finalised the rules governing the Consumer Data Right (CDR).

The rules come into effect from tomorrow, 6 February 2020. The CDR has been touted as allowing individuals to own their data by granting them open access to their banking, energy, phone, and internet transactions, as well as the right to control who can have it and who can use it. The first tranche to which the CDR and its associated rules will affect is banking, with telecommunications and energy soon to follow.

In addition to legally requiring the four major banks to share product reference data with accredited data recipients, the rules also give legislative force to consumer data sharing obligations in banking -- set to become mandatory from 1 July 2020, following delays. Product reference data includes information such as interest rates, fees and charges, and eligibility criteria for banking products like credit cards and mortgages. Banks have voluntarily made this information available via APIs since July 2019.

A draft set of rules were published in March. The now-finalised rules still specify three different ways CDR data can be requested, with the requirements tweaked minutely: Product data requests, consumer data requests made by CDR consumers, and consumer data requests made on behalf of CDR consumers.