Advisory to a government agency on an industry proposal for a digital platform to facilitate the provision of services

CCCS advised a government agency on evaluating a grant application submitted by an industry association for a digital platform to facilitate the provision of services by connecting the service providers with users of their services. Although the platform would only temporarily store data for the purpose of facilitating the provision of services, and the content of the services provided would not be accessible to users that are not involved in the particular transaction, including persons from the industry association, CCCS noted that the platform, which would be owned by the association, may be able to collect data on its users’ activities, which can be commercially sensitive information, and the association may in future store at least for an extended period of time the content of the services provided by competing service providers and track other user related information.

CCCS advised that, should the association need to access commercially sensitive information stored in the platform, there could be a risk of anti-competitive behaviour, if the association allows members who are service providers to access the commercially sensitive information of users stored in the platform. CCCS recommended that access to commercially sensitive information be restricted to persons who are not service providers in the market and that an independent party be appointed to handle information stored in the platform.