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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (����ԭ��) has accepted a court enforceable undertaking from Equifax Australasia Workforce Solutions Pty Limited (Equifax) after Equifax admitted that its conduct in entering into, and giving effect to, an agreement with SuperChoice Services Pty Ltd (SuperChoice) containing exclusivity provisions had the potential to contravene section 47 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA).

Equifax is part of a corporate group which operates a large and well-established credit bureau in Australia. Since 2020, Equifax has offered a service known as the “Verification Exchange” which provides automated income and employment verification in Australia.

Between 2019 and 2024, Equifax entered into agreements with 11 data holders in Australia. The ����ԭ�� was concerned that these agreements prevented the data holders supplying data to other suppliers of income verification services in Australia.

Further, on 30 September 2021, Equifax entered into an agreement with SuperChoice. The ����ԭ�� considers SuperChoice to be the largest holder of payroll and superannuation data willing to supply data to third parties for income verification purposes.

The agreement between SuperChoice and Equifax contained provisions which:

• prevented SuperChoice from supplying data to other Australian suppliers of income verification services, including a phasing out of supply to a specified rival income verification service provider; and
• included a meaningful revenue sharing arrangement.

The ����ԭ�� considers that a substantial purpose and likely effect of Equifax’s conduct in entering into, and giving effect to, the SuperChoice agreement containing those provisions was to substantially hinder competition in the market in Australia in which the Verification Exchange service was supplied, by hindering or preventing other suppliers of income verification services from accessing SuperChoice’s data and reaching or maintaining sufficient scale to provide the service.

As a result of the ����ԭ��’s investigation, Equifax ceased relying on the provisions in the SuperChoice agreement (in May 2025) and later amended the SuperChoice agreement to remove them (in September 2025). In November 2024, Equifax also informed its other data suppliers that they were not prevented from supplying data to any other party.

To address the ����ԭ��’s concerns, Equifax provided the ����ԭ�� with a section 87B undertaking that any future agreements to obtain data for its income verification service:

• will be on a non-exclusive basis, with no restrictions on data providers supplying data to other suppliers of income verification services; and
• will not condition any payment on the data provider supplying data to Equifax on an exclusive basis in respect of the income verification service.

Equifax has also undertaken to establish a competition and consumer law compliance program that complies with the requirements set out in the undertaking.

The undertaking will be in effect for 3 years from the commencement date.