Consumer Protection

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) enforces the Consumer and Competition Act to promote competition and fair trade in the marketplace for the benefit of both consumers and business.

It also regulates some national infrastructure industries through the Australian Energy Regulator.

Its main role is to ensure people comply with Australia’s competition, fair trading and consumer-protection laws.

In broad terms these laws cover unfair market practices, industry codes of conduct, mergers and acquisitions of companies, product safety, product labelling, price monitoring and the regulation of industries including telecommunications, gas, electricity and airports.

For consumers in Australia, there have been some major changes in the law in the past few years, most importantly the introduction on 1 January 2011 of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

The ACL consolidated many federal, state and territory laws into one consistent, national law aimed at protecting consumers from unfair business practices and inaccurate or misleading advertising.

Among other things the ACL includes:

• the mandatory reporting by businesses of dangerous or unsafe products
• rules for unsolicited selling (door-to-door and telemarketing)
• penalties for businesses that breach consumer-protection laws
• consumer guarantees, which give consumers security that what they buy will be of good quality and will work as intended, and a process to correct it if not.

That means if a consumer buys a product and is faulty or does not work as it should they can have it replaced, repaired or have their money refunded.

A major area of focus of the ACL is misleading and deceptive conduct by businesses.

No matter how a business communicates—whether it is through packaging, advertising or endorsements—consumers can expect accurate and honest information about the goods and services they buy.

The ACL prohibits conduct by a company that is misleading or deceptive. It makes no difference whether the business intended to mislead consumers or not.

If the overall impression left by an advertisement, promotion, quote or statement made by a business creates a misleading impression—such as to the price, value or the quality of any goods and services—then the conduct is likely to breach the law.

There are also some specific provisions. For example, the law also says businesses must not make false claims about:

• the quality, style, model or history of a product or service
• whether the goods are new
• the performance characteristics, accessories, benefits and uses
• the availability of repair facilities or spare parts
• the item’s place of origin (for example, where it was made or assembled)
• a buyer’s need for the goods or services
• any exclusions.

Examples of conduct that may be misleading or deceptive are:

• a mobile phone provider signing someone up to a contract without telling them there is no coverage where they live
• a company misrepresenting the possible profits of a work-at-home scheme, or other business opportunity such as a franchise
• a business predicting the health benefits of a therapeutic device or health product without being able to substantiate them.