World to watch ACCC v Microsoft; junior pay test case; red crab creep begins

World to watch ACCC v Microsoft; junior pay test case; red crab creep begins

News in brief

The Fair Work Commission has launched hearings into the union movement’s bid to scrap junior pay rates for more than 500,000 workers aged 18 and older across the retail, fast-food and pharmacy sectors.

 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told Chinese Premier Li Qiang that Australia wants “a region where transparency and rules are respected”. The leaders agreed that both Canberra and Beijing “wish to see a more mature, stable and constructive engagement” between the nations.

 

Wisetech owner Richard White continues to sell down his stake in the tech company, and so far, has offloaded nearly 5 million shares since late August worth $44 million. White isn’t exactly selling out – he still holds just shy of $10 billion worth of Wisetech shares.

 

The carrier USS Nimitz had a bad day on Sunday, with two aircraft crashing within 30 minutes of each other. That’s about $140 million of hardware. There were no fatalities and both accidents happened during “routine operations” in the South China Sea.

 

Tens of millions of red crabs have begun their annual migration on Christmas Island, moving from their homes down to beaches on the island to lay eggs. About 50 million of them are on the move, and roads and fields have turned into a moving red mass.

Fear-o-meter

Similar to Australia’s ban on social media for under 16-year-olds, there will be plenty of people around the world watching the ACCC’s case against Microsoft over its pricing policies.

 

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gotlieb yesterday claimed that Microsoft had deliberately forced anyone wanting to use Microsoft’s Office products onto a more expensive, Copilot package, when there was a cheaper, non-Copilot option.

 

The ACCC received more than 100 complaints as well as tip offs from social media site Reddit.

 

Microsoft is doing what big tech does, introducing new features and then upping the price for subscriptions. Google, for example, has spent billions of dollars in recent years embedding AI features, on the assumption that users – and probably all users – will bear the cost.

 

Cass-Gotlieb is saying consumers shouldn’t be forced into paying that cost, when there are other options.

 

The share prices of companies like Microsoft and Amazon and Google have run very hard on the basis that the tens of billions of dollars they’ve invested into AI will provide a big return, much of it paid by consumers.

The ACCC action threatens that and will be closely watched around the world.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On the outlook for small caps, including three stocks he likes:

 

"About 18 months ago, I was asked by the AFR what I think the next 10-bagger is on the ASX. And I said, Life360. And I got a lot of phone calls about it because it was already up 50% at that stage from different brokers saying, "you serious?" And the fund managers, "why'd you say that sort of thing?" It's now I think up three times since I said that, and sort of only has to do that again and we're at the 10 times. 

 

This is a platform business. Right now they're launching their pet tracker and to give you an idea of what a platform business does, they've got 80 million users around the world. They know people who go to dog parks, who go to Petbarn or people who've just uploaded their pets onto the tracking device they have. People can see where their friends, their family... their things... their dogs and their children are. And now they've got GPS tracking for pets. It's been selling out."

 

General information only. Seek advice tailored to you before making investment decisions.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is suing Microsoft, claiming it misled millions of customers into paying more for its artificial intelligence assistant, Copilot. The ACCC alleges that Microsoft has made false or misleading statements to about 2.7 million Australians since October last year, when it upped the cost of a personal subscription to its Office suite by 45 per cent and increased the family plan by almost 30 per cent. Subscribers on automatic renewal agreements in place had two options – pay more, and or cancel. ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gotlieb claimed that Microsoft had deliberately concealed a third option to move to a less expensive subscription that did not have Copilot.

Greed-o-meter

City	Average super balance ($)
Canberra	223,585
Adelaide	174,550
Hobart	173,487
Sydney	168,923
Melbourne	167,468
Perth	165,031
Brisbane	178,475

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This is the average super balance in our capital cities, according to new research from ASFA (Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia).

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Source: ASFA, reported in The Australian