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Payroll fraud creates considerable losses for South African companies and taxpayers. The Public Servant Association revealed that ghost employees are costing the public purse nearly R4 billion. The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals estimated that payroll fraud steals at least R100 million annually from businesses and represents roughly 10% of business fraud cases.

Yet, these are not the activities of mastermind criminals. Payroll fraud is often incredibly basic. But when there are dozens to thousands of employees on the books, detecting these crimes can be resource- and time-intensive.

Diligent monitoring, audits, and face-to-face confirmation campaigns will expose and discourage payroll fraud. But these approaches are often also resource intensive. Fortunately, there is another method that works well in the short term: checking bank account details.

Bank accounts don't lie

Payroll criminals manipulate employee information. They can load ghost employees onto systems as new hires or edit existing records, such as those of departing employees, rather than remove them. They can abuse the profiles of infrequently paid employees such as contractors and freelancers, skimming money when legitimate payments aren't due or adding inflated charges that are diverted to a different account.

They can also change banking details right before and after payroll runs, hoping to avoid detection since such changes can sidestep proper processes, hide inside dense financial records, and not show up unless there is an audit of payroll activities.

In all of these abuses, changes to banking details are the common thread, says Yolande Schoültz, founder of YSchoültz Attorneys | Conveyancers | Notaries.

"For payroll fraud to work, money to be misappropriated and to be fraudulently paid over to a bank account, there must be a change in banking details."

Fraudsters alter payroll details, concealing their activities behind legitimate profiles and their role as system gatekeepers. However, most don't go as far as to forge relevant documents such as bank confirmation letters. When organisations have processes that dictate how to legitimately change employee bank details, they will keep those documents on file. Looking for those anomalies will expose payroll fraud.

Each month, check the new employees and terminations. The new employee records should have corresponding bank documentation reflecting their banking account details. The records of former employees should not have new banking details. If you compare those groups with the documents you have on file, you'll uncover irregularities.

"Even if that's the only verification you do, you are still mitigating payroll fraud," says Schoültz.

Signs of potential payroll fraud include:

• New employees on payroll with no or lacking corresponding banking documentation
• Profiles of terminated employees that are still active
• Bank account changes on profiles of employees that receive infrequent or variable payments
• Altered banking records with no corresponding documentation or requests
• The same bank account details appearing on multiple records
• Changes to banking details right before and after payroll runs

Monthly spot checks on new employee additions, or banking changes to terminated and infrequently paid employees, will show fraud patterns if there are any. Also conduct quarterly or biannual audits of payroll records, specifically looking for changes to banking details.

Simplifying fraud detection with technology

Why aren't organisations conducting these checks? The first issue is that management of payroll departments is often ambiguous. Do they fall under finance or human resources?

"Should payroll be a part of HR or finance? It's not either of the two; it's both, with finance taking the lead. Nevertheless, payroll can often operate independently from finance. When requests for verifications arise, they simply export a file and forward it to finance, which often accepts it without further scrutiny," says Schoültz.

The second is that conventional payroll software is typically isolated from people who should have oversight authority. Many companies still rely on payroll software that is at least 10 years old and typically lacks modern features such as remote access, ad hoc reporting, and integration with other business systems.

Modern payroll software that provides role-based access is a potent deterrent against payroll fraud because it removes barriers complicating payroll oversight, says Sandra Crous, MD of South African payroll and HR platform Deel Local Payroll.

"If you have a system where the head of HR or Finance can log in remotely and generate reports, you remove that isolation. They don't need to go through the payroll staff to see what is going on. And if they use these measures to regularly check on new and terminated employees, emphasising bank account changes, they'll uncover and discourage payroll fraud."

Payroll fraud may lack sophistication, but its cumulative impact is devastating. Vigilance over bank account details is a simple yet effective way to expose and discourage these crimes. By scrutinising banking detail changes and leveraging modern payroll software for oversight without bottlenecks, organisations can dramatically reduce their vulnerability to payroll fraud.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace.

For media queries please contact:
Victoria Lindsay
victoria@innocomm.co.za

About Deel Local Payroll:
Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace, revolutionises payroll management. It offers online, multi-country payroll and HR management for businesses from start-ups through to enterprise in over 40 African countries, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Brazil.

Cloud-native, Deel Local Payroll, is scalable, configurable, highly secure, and easy-to-use—delivering anytime, anywhere access. It features payroll automation, self-service features, automatic legislation and feature updates, customised reporting, and more.

Since 2024, Deel Local Payroll has been part of Deel, operating as an independent subsidiary, serving its customers through the PaySpace platform.

Kaspersky's (www.Kaspersky.co.za) detection systems discovered an average of 500,000 malicious files per day in 2025, marking a 7% increase compared to the previous year. Certain types of threats saw growth globally – there was a 59% surge in password stealer detections, a 51% growth in spyware detections, and a 6% growth in backdoor detections compared to 2024.

These findings are part of the Kaspersky Security Bulletin (https://apo-opa.co/44CY5Zj) series where we review the key cybersecurity trends of the past year.

Windows remains the primary target for cyberattacks. 48% of users on Windows were targeted by different types of threats throughout 2025. For Mac users, this figure stands at 29%.

Web threats

Globally, 27% of users were attacked with web threats – these refer to malware that targets users when they are online. Web threats are not limited to online activity, but ultimately involve the Internet at some stage for inflicted harm. In Latin America, 26% of users were attacked by web threats in 2025, while this share reached 25% in Africa, 21% in Europe and 19% in the Middle East.

On-device threats

33% of users were attacked with on-device threats. These include malware that is spread via removable USB drives, CDs and DVDs, or that initially makes its way onto the computer in non-open form (for example, programs in complex installers, encrypted files, etc.). Africa headed the rating with 41% of users attacked with this type of threat; APAC reached 33%, Middle East – 32%, Latin America – 30%, and Europe 20%.

“The current cyberthreat landscape is defined by increasingly sophisticated attacks on organisations and individuals around the world. One of the most significant revelations made by Kaspersky this year was the resurgence of the Hacking Team after its 2019 rebranding, with its commercial spyware Dante used in the ForumTroll APT campaign, incorporating zero-day exploits in Chrome and Firefox browsers. Vulnerabilities remain the most popular way for attackers to get into corporate networks, followed by using stolen credentials – hence the rise in password stealers and spyware we see this year. Supply chain attacks are also common, including attacks on open-source software. This year the number of such attacks increased significantly, and we even saw the first widespread NPM worm Shai-Hulud,” comments Alexander Liskin, Head of Threat Research at Kaspersky. “This increasingly complex threat landscape makes implementing robust cybersecurity strategies vital for organisations, as failure to do so can lead to months of downtime in the event of attacks. Individual users should also always use reliable security solutions, otherwise they put not only their data and money at risk, but also those of the organisations where they work.”

Follow this link (https://apo-opa.co/44CY5Zj) to learn more about other KSB reports.

To stay protected, follow the recommendations below.

Individual users:

• Do not download and install applications from untrusted sources.
• Do not click on any links from unknown sources or suspicious online advertisements.
• Always use two-factor authentication when available. Create strong and unique passwords, using a mix of lower-case and upper-case letters, numbers, and punctuation. Use a reliable password manager to help to remember them.
• Always install updates when they become available; they contain fixes for critical security issues.
• Ignore messages asking to disable security systems for office or cybersecurity software.
• Use a robust security solution appropriate to your system type and devices, such as Kaspersky Premium (https://apo-opa.co/4pFVUMB).

Organisations:

• Always keep software updated on all the devices you use to prevent attackers from infiltrating your network by exploiting vulnerabilities.
• Do not expose remote desktop services (such as RDP) to public networks unless absolutely necessary and always use strong passwords for them.
• Use advanced Kaspersky Next (https://apo-opa.co/4pQstI1) security products for comprehensive visibility across all company's corporate infrastructure to rapidly hunt out, prioritise, investigate and neutralise complex threats and APT-like attacks.
• Use the latest Threat Intelligence (https://apo-opa.co/3MdQvOI) information to stay aware of actual TTPs used by threat actors.
• Back up corporate data regularly. Backups should be isolated from the network. Make sure you can quickly access the backups in an emergency if needed.

All statistics in this report come from Kaspersky Security Network (KSN). For 2025, the statistics cover the period from November 2024 through October 2025.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Kaspersky.

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Nicole Allman
nicole@inkandco.co.za

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About Kaspersky:
Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. With over a billion devices protected to date from emerging cyberthreats and targeted attacks, Kaspersky's deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company's comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection, specialized security products and services, as well as Cyber Immune solutions to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. We help nearly 200,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.Kaspersky.co.za.

A leader in industrial automation and digital transformation solutions for over 30 years, Adroit Technologies (https://AdroitSCADA.com/) is advancing its cutting-edge research and development (R&D) into an AI-powered Water Management Platform, designed to tackle one of South Africa's most urgent infrastructure challenges: non-revenue water losses.

The R&D presents an opportunity to develop a first if its kind, AI-driven ‘pseudo-metering' capability, a potential breakthrough feature that can infer consumption and pressure data in areas where physical meters are not installed. “We have proven the initial concept and have now secured the support of the government and other industry leaders to develop this AI-driven platform, confirms Frits Kok, Co-CEO at Adroit Technologies.

With nearly 40% of the country's treated water lost to leaks, theft, and ageing infrastructure, Adroit Technologies is exploring new ways to enhance intelligent, data-driven water management. Using advanced machine learning (ML) and neural network algorithms, the research platform can analyse existing telemetry and SCADA data to detect leaks, forecast demand, and infer flow rates in areas without sensors, paving the way for more efficient, transparent municipal water systems in the future.

“South Africa's water infrastructure challenges demand smarter, data-driven solutions,” stresses Kok. “Our current R&D is focused on developing next-generation AI capabilities that will, in time, complement our existing water management technologies, which are already helping utilities reduce water losses and make informed operational decisions today.”

Addressing a National Challenge

Urban growth, vandalism, and limited monitoring capacity have severely strained South Africa's water systems. In many municipalities, leaks and pump failures are discovered only after outages occur.

Adroit Technologies' ongoing research aims to integrate new AI tools seamlessly with existing SCADA and telemetry systems to deliver predictive analytics, real-time alerts, and actionable insights, helping engineers identify hidden losses and optimise operations before crises arise.

The AI-driven ‘pseudo-metering' can infer consumption and pressure data where physical meters are missing or damaged. This innovation has the potential to help under-resourced municipalities monitor network conditions that were previously ‘data blind.'

Research with Real-World Impact

Adroit Technologies' current research is focused on developing a scalable, national-level AI framework that leverages forecasting, anomaly detection, and digital twin modelling to enhance decision-making and support more efficient water use.

A hybrid neural network architecture (CNN-LSTM) and self-healing data middleware are being designed to operate effectively even with incomplete or delayed data, a common challenge across South Africa's municipalities.

“This research is about enabling resilience,” adds Hugo Pienaar, Director of Digital Services at Adroit Technologies. “By combining AI with decades of SCADA expertise, we are helping municipalities envision how to predict issues before they happen and manage scarce water resources more efficiently.”

A Smarter, Sustainable Future

While Adroit Technologies continues to its R&D into AI-powered water management capabilities, the company already offers a proven suite of water management and SCADA solutions that empower utilities to detect leaks, optimise assets, and improve operational efficiency.

As the R&D programme progresses, these new AI capabilities will be introduced into Adroit's product range, ensuring that customers can benefit from the latest innovations in predictive maintenance, data analytics, and infrastructure optimisation, all designed to strengthen South Africa's water security and sustainability.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Adroit Technologies.

Browse the NGAGE Media Zone for more client news articles and photographs at https://Media.NGAGE.co.za/.

Adroit Technologies Contact:
Dave Wibberley
Phone: 011 65 88100
Email: DaveW@adroit.co.za

Media Contact:
Andile Mbethe
Account Executive
NGAGE Public Relations
Phone: (011) 867-7763
Cell: 073 565 6536
Email: andile@ngage.co.za
Web: https://NGAGE.co.za

About Adroit Technologies:
Adroit Technologies is a trusted industrial software and digital solutions partner with over 35 000 installations worldwide. Backed by Mitsubishi Electric and operating as co-developer of the Mitsubishi Adroit Process Suite (MAPS), Adroit serves customers in more than 40 countries across six continents. The company specialises in SCADA systems, industrial automation, digital transformation, cybersecurity compliance, and analytics solutions for mining, water, energy, and manufacturing industries.

Website: https://AdroitSCADA.com/

• AI will be key enabler for countries to achieve national clean energy goals
• AI technologies help companies reduce energy consumption by as much as 60%
• Artificial Intelligence Conference to explore ways to tackle AI's energy footprint

As artificial intelligence emerges as a transformative force in the clean energy sector, the World Future Energy Summit 2026 (www.WorldFutureEnergySummit.com) will spotlight its vast potential to reshape energy production, transmission, and efficient, data-driven distribution. Running from January 13-15 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), the three-day show is an integral part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2026.

With the theme of AI running across all seven conference tracks at this year's show, the 2026 edition will build on that momentum, raising the bar with the launch of the FUSE AI Zone, a dedicated platform where more than 40 companies will showcase cutting-edge AI solutions to drive clean energy, smart infrastructure, and climate resilience. The event will also incorporate the inaugural Artificial Intelligence Conference, a forum exploring how AI can be responsibly harnessed to accelerate progress across the energy, infrastructure, and smart cities sectors.

Gathering thought leaders, innovators, and policy influencers, the Summit will laser in on AI's predictive power and its ability to optimise the management of clean energy flows, providing a vital technical boost to help low-carbon systems scale effectively.

Using AI to Accelerate Technical Breakthroughs

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), AI adoption is accelerating across multiple areas, from grid and demand-response management to sector coupling and system maintenance. Advances in forecasting and energy storage are also enhancing performance, enabling companies to deliver renewable energy with greater efficiency and reliability. Yet important questions remain about how best to unlock AI's full potential to power the sustainable energy systems of the future.

For example, can AI make up for shortcomings in energy policy that hold back the transition to carbon-free energy? Can it accelerate innovation to enable researchers and entrepreneurs to more rapidly test and prove technologies that make a direct impact on decarbonisation? These pressing issues, plus the potential of AI to advance the exploration of mineralisation for carbon capture, will be addressed by leading experts at January's World Future Energy Summit, now globally recognised as the world's premier business event focused on future energy and sustainability.

The UAE's clean energy goals, driven by its Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative, involve increasing clean energy to 50 per cent of the total energy mix by 2050, reducing carbon emissions by 70 per cent, and tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030. AI will be a key enabler for achieving these clean energy targets across the region.

The World Future Energy Summit and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week's Advisory Committee's 2025 AI and Technology Insights Report supports this, stating that AI can significantly enhance the efficiency and reliability of clean energy and infrastructure networks both regionally and globally.

According to the report, smart grid algorithms can accurately predict and then balance electricity supply and demand in real time, integrate renewables, and reduce the need for constructing new power plants. Investment in digital infrastructure and skills is key, however, so that utilities can harness data for grid optimisation and predictive maintenance.

Driving Energy Efficiency in Homes and Businesses

The 2026 edition will also highlight the growing role of AI in enhancing energy efficiency within buildings. According to the World Economic Forum, AI technologies are already helping companies reduce energy consumption by up to 60 per cent in some cases.

While the industry has only just begun to tap into AI's full potential in this field, the opportunities for progress are vast. Through panel discussions and keynote sessions, a powerhouse of industry experts will explore the key challenges and opportunities surrounding energy efficiency in homes and businesses across the MENA region and beyond.

Speakers will discuss how new AI- and automation-powered design tools can help create spaces that are energy-, water- and people-efficient, all while staying within budget. They will also examine how smart software can rapidly test design options to identify solutions that cut costs and reduce environmental impact. Additional sessions will address how innovation, collaboration, and resilient supply chains can help build sustainable urban futures.

Shyam Parmar, the Summit's Event Director, added: “By bringing together some of the brightest minds from across the global energy landscape, the World Future Energy Summit plays a pivotal role in unlocking the vast potential of artificial intelligence, not only to drive greater energy efficiency in homes and businesses, but to accelerate progress across the entire clean energy and sustainability ecosystem.

“The new FUSE AI Zone and Artificial Intelligence Conference provide an unparalleled platform for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and lively debate on how AI can be deployed responsibly and effectively. These conversations are vital to advancing the AI agenda and ensuring companies can fully harness their capabilities to meet clean energy ambitions. By facilitating this dialogue, we're helping to translate innovation into action, and turning bold ideas into tangible outcomes that move the world closer to a sustainable energy future.”

Understanding AI's Energy Consumption

AI's transformative potential is undeniable, yet credible estimates project AI-related electricity consumption could grow by as much as 50 per cent each year from 2023 to 2030. The electricity demand of data centres is also projected to grow, from one per cent of global energy demand in 2022 to more than three per cent by 2030.

In January 2025, Masdar and Emirates Water and Electricity Company announced the launch of the world's first large-scale round-the-clock giga-scale project, combining solar power and battery storage in Abu Dhabi. Delivering up to one gigawatt of baseload power every day generated from renewable energy, it will be the largest combined solar and battery energy storage system in the world.

According to the 2025 AI and Technology Insights Report, such projects could redefine how critical AI systems are powered, eliminating the need for fossil fuel-backup. By connecting to clean energy sources, AI data centres could operate with near-zero carbon emissions, marking a major step towards a more sustainable digital future.

The Summit will explore ways to tackle AI's energy footprint with a dedicated panel session on actionable strategies to realign AI growth with climate goals, balance energy consumption, and drive sustainable innovation without sacrificing usability.

“AI's role in climate and environmental systems is expanding rapidly and understanding how to guide that growth is becoming just as important as advancing the technology itself,” said Mehdi Ajana, Head of Strategy at Nabat. “At the World Future Energy Summit, we'll look at practical, data-driven approaches, from improving habitat classification and health assessment model accuracy, to monitoring carbon and biodiversity metrics  that help align AI innovation with measurable climate outcomes”.

“It's a great opportunity for like-minded organisations to come together, listen, learn, and explore what's possible and to understand how AI can be deployed responsibly to accelerate real progress towards global sustainability goals.”

Paving the Way to a Sustainable Future

The 2026 edition of the World Future Energy Summit will also explore the role of AI in healthcare, food security, and weather modelling, with a keynote presentation on Earth Two Climate, G42, and NVIDIA's new AI-powered weather forecasting solution that accurately gauges weather conditions down to a single square-metre. This is invaluable to farmers and smart agriculture planners, who can make more informed decisions on crop choices, yield expectations, maintenance procedures, and more.

From cutting energy waste to improving health outcomes and driving farming efficiencies, AI is a powerful means to accelerate sustainability solutions. According to the 2025 AI and Technology Insights Report, however, it must be guided by clear human-defined goals: “Technology deployments should focus on solving real problems rather than adopting AI for AI's sake”. That means human oversight, strategic vision, and multidisciplinary collaboration should be seen as essential in order to convert AI's promise into tangible progress, paving the way to a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable future.

The World Future Energy Summit 2026, hosted by Masdar and part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, will take place from January 13–15 at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Future Energy Summit.

For media inquiries, please contact:
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World Future Energy Summit:
As the largest event during ADSW, the World Future Energy Summit continues to be a driving force for innovation, collaboration, and thought leadership in renewable energy and sustainability. Now entering its 18th edition, the Summit has established itself as a vital platform bridging policy with real-world action and business growth.

The 2026 edition, taking place from 13–15 January, will feature more than 800 global brands, the dynamic Greenhouse start-up zone, the Fuse AI cleantech pavilion, and the debut of the Greenpeace Cinema. Over three days, attendees will have the opportunity to join conferences led by 300+ industry experts, explore nine exhibition halls showcasing breakthrough products and solutions, and connect with more than 50,000 participants from across the globe.

About Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week:
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) is a global platform supported by the UAE and its clean energy leader, Masdar, to address the world's most pressing sustainability challenges through crucial conversations accelerating responsible development and fostering inclusive economic, social and environmental progress.

For more than 15 years, ADSW has convened decision-makers from governments, the private sector and civil society to advance the global sustainability agenda through dialogue, cross-sector collaboration and impactful solutions. Throughout the year, ADSW conversations and initiatives facilitate knowledge sharing and collective action that will ensure a sustainable world for future generations.

About Masdar:
Established in 2006, Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) is a global clean energy leader, transforming how the world produces and consumes energy through bold innovation and commercial excellence.

Masdar is a clean energy investor, developer and operator, advancing renewable energy projects across key markets and technologies, with a global project portfolio capacity to date of over 51 gigawatts (GW).

Jointly owned by TAQA, ADNOC and Mubadala, Masdar is driving the scale-up of renewables worldwide, targeting a portfolio capacity of 100GW by 2030.

For more information, please visit: https://Masdar.ae/

A cyberattack on payroll and HR systems can expose personal employee details and financial business information: a treasure trove for criminals and can bring companies to their knees through regulatory fines, reputational damage, and derailing operations.

"Criminals are targeting payroll and HR staff. They may trick or force them with personal info or make them think they're aiding the CEO. Ransomware attacks can encrypt payroll systems. Treating payroll and HR cybersecurity as optional is like leaving your front door wide open in a dangerous neighbourhood," says Sandra Crous, Managing Director at Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace.

Securing these high-value business areas and their people reduces your business risks. With interventions ranging from personal training to using modern software, here are four tips to protect your payroll and HR from cybercrime.

1. Understand the risks faced by payroll staff

Payroll staff are high-value targets with access to sensitive information. If criminals steal that information, they can commit theft, fraud, identity theft, and much more.

Criminals target payroll staff in various ways. They can flood them with phishing attacks that steal passwords or provide unauthorised access to systems. They can launch social engineering campaigns that target staff personally. They may even find ways to exhort and coerce staff into doing their bidding. Do not underestimate the ruthlessness of online criminals that target payroll staff and the lengths they will go to.

2. Provide security training for payroll and HR staff

Once you appreciate that payroll and HR staff are the gatekeepers of important information, you can help them with security training. All staff should receive training on security fundamentals, such as good security hygiene practices and how to recognise phishing messages and scams.

Then, add training tailored to payroll staff. Let your payroll and HR staff collaborate with security trainers to build skills that match internal processes and policies. This training is not just rote—it should include psychological resilience and provide supportive, not punitive, reinforcement of solid security instincts.

3. Involve security staff

Digital security teams often have little in common with payroll or HR staff, and there is a natural tendency for them to walk separate paths. But this is a mistake. Security teams help reduce cyber risks for other parts of the business, and it is incredibly effective when security people collaborate with payroll and HR professionals.

There are various points where the two sides can connect. They can jointly discuss payroll and HR responsibilities, especially around data management. They can focus on common goals such as reducing payroll errors and maintaining compliance. They should meet regularly and create a common appreciation for the value each brings to the table. This synergy will help develop stronger security that is pragmatic and productive.

4. Use modern software

Even the best training and collaboration will crumble if the underlying software is outdated and lacks appropriate features. Isolated payroll or HR software are single points of failure that criminals can conveniently breach, encrypt, and corrupt.

Traditional payroll and HR software lack many crucial modern features and will keep falling behind. Cloud-native platforms address security shortcomings. Their account management provides nuanced and low-risk access to administrators, managers, and executives. The platform's developers automatically apply security upgrades without disrupting operations. Business and security teams have access to detailed logs and audit trails exposing criminal and fraudulent activities. Cloud-native software also enables staff to complete tasks, make approvals, and access reporting securely from anywhere.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace.

For media queries please contact:
Victoria Lindsay 
victoria@innocomm.co.za

About Deel Local Payroll:
Deel Local Payroll, powered by PaySpace, revolutionises payroll management. It offers online, multi-country payroll and HR management for businesses from start-ups through to enterprise in over 40 African countries, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Brazil.

Cloud-native, Deel Local Payroll, is scalable, configurable, highly secure, and easy-to-use—delivering anytime, anywhere access. It features payroll automation, self-service features, automatic legislation and feature updates, customised reporting, and more.

Since 2024, Deel Local Payroll has been part of Deel, operating as an independent subsidiary, serving its customers through the PaySpace platform.

Digital cartels and algorithmic coordination were among the central topics discussed at the 10th Anniversary International Conference “Antitrust Policy: Science, Practice, Education,” organized by FAS Russia, HSE University and the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre. Officials from BRICS and EAEU competition authorities, judges, researchers and practitioners examined how AI technologies reshape global markets and complicate traditional antitrust enforcement.

During the session “Artificial Intelligence vs. Cartels,” Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Centre, emphasized that algorithmic coordination represents a new form of cartelization. He noted that algorithms can synchronize prices without human intent or explicit agreements, creating “black boxes” that regulators struggle to interpret. While classical cartels relied on meetings and documented communication, digital cartels may evolve autonomously, react in milliseconds and scale across entire platforms.

Ivanov referenced emerging global enforcement practice that illustrates these challenges. In the United States, the RealPage case has demonstrated how revenue-management software coordinating rental prices across a market can lead to cartel-like outcomes, resulting in dozens of settlements and creating a new benchmark for assessing algorithmic collusion. Similar issues arise in ride-hailing and online marketplaces, where centralized algorithmic systems influence pricing, ranking and access to key tools such as the Buy Box. Risks of algorithmic price management, he noted, also exist on Russian platforms. In global commodity trade, digital platforms such as Covantis show how blockchain-based systems may consolidate, rather than decentralize, market power.

According to Ivanov, some forms of digital coordination are becoming structural features of modern markets. Regulators therefore need to understand how algorithms operate and develop tools that differentiate harmful coordination from efficiency-enhancing mechanisms. This includes transparency requirements for algorithms, real-time monitoring, increased technical capacity within antitrust agencies and expanded international cooperation.

The conference underscored a growing consensus: AI-driven coordination is transforming markets faster than traditional antitrust tools can respond. Experts agreed that enforcement approaches must evolve accordingly to ensure that digital markets remain open, transparent and competitive.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre.