Australian Consumer Law: There's a new law in Town

From 1 January 2011 the Trade Practices Act 1974 changed its name to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Further the Act now included the new Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

The new law is a unified national consumer law aimed at ensuring that there is consistency in the rights of consumers and the obligations of businesses across Australia. The new law is administered by:

• the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC);

• each State and Territory’s consumer agency; and

• in respect of financial services, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

A wide range of changes have come about as a result of the new law. A good place to start finding out about these changes is the Australian Consumer Law – Ready Reckoner a useful document available from the ACCC which sets out the changes in tabular form and making them easy to browse through. A recent article posted to Mondaq by Gadens Lawyers also provides an excellent overview of the changes.

For those who need to be totally informed and current we would suggest a closer look at our Competition and Consumer Service which includes the following:

• All changes made by the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Act (No. 1) 2010 and the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Act (No. 2) 2010

• Inclusion of the Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010

• Final consolidations of State Acts before the commencement of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) are accessible in under State Acts 

• State Acts cross linked to the appropriate ACL Sections through a Comparative Table, accessible from the Competition and Consumer Service product Homepage.

For more information on our Australian Competition and Consumer Service contact TimeBase to trial our product for free.