Interoperability can boost e-conveyancing competition, Australian lawyers say
By Saloni Sinha ( March 25, 2025, 06:22 GMT | Insight) -- Genuine competition enabled by interoperability is the key to overcoming obstacles and reducing conveyancing cost, Australian lawyers said in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into so-called micro-competition opportunities in the Australian economy, specifically the market for electronic property transactions known as e-conveyancing. However, other industry players argued that interoperability was much more complex and expensive than its original proponents appreciated.
Genuine competition enabled by interoperability is the key to overcoming obstacles and reducing conveyancing cost, Australian lawyers have said. In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into so-called micro-competition opportunities in the Australian economy, specifically the market for electronic property transactions known as e-conveyancing, the Law Council of Australia said it was strongly in favor of competition among electronic lodgment network operators, or ELNOs. It added that it considered “interoperability to be a non-negotiable feature of the e-conveyancing market.” The Law Council’s National Electronic Conveyancing System Committee, which prepared the submission, said interoperability would allow a subscriber — for example, a lawyer connected to an ELNO — to transact with a subscriber connected to a different ELNO. “This would allow subscribers to choose the ELNO that is best for them and ensure that they are not required to subscribe to multiple ELNOs,” the profession’s peak body said. “This choice will encourage competition between service providers and, in turn, achieve more efficient outcomes for subscribers and their clients; maintain pressure on prices; and stimulate innovation in this fast-moving space,” it added. In July 2024, the state-based New South Wales Productivity Commission found that Australia’s e-conveyancing market was “not effectively competitive” and should be regulated by the country’s antitrust watchdog (see here). “The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission … is best placed to lead the ongoing market oversight and monitoring of the e-conveyancing market in Australia,” it said. The regulatory body currently overseeing e-conveyancing is the Australian Registrars’ National Electronic Conveyancing Council, or ARNECC. In February this year, an economics committee of the Australian Senate launched an inquiry into micro-competition opportunities within the Australian e-conveyancing market. Submissions are currently being accepted, with hearings to follow....
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