Restaurant and Cafe Menu Surcharges: Exemption from Component Pricing Provisions

The Competition and Consumer Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 3) (No. 177 of 2013) registered on 15 July 2013 and commencing on 16 July 2013, accordiung to the explanatory statement issued with the regulation, made changes intended to gives effect to a recommendation of the Productivity Commission in its 2010 Annual Review of Regulatory Burdens on Business: Business and Consumer Services, namely that: "The Australian Government should amend the Trade Practices Act 1974 to have restaurant and café menu surcharges for specific days placed outside the scope of the component pricing provision of that legislation."

The making of the regulation, it is explained in the statement, follows on the recent amendments made by the Competition and Consumer Amendment Act 2013 to s 48 of the ACL which inserted s 48(4A) containing a regulations-making power that enables exemptions from the component pricing requirement to be prescribed by regulation. Section 48 of the ACL (that covers the component pricing requirement) prohibits a person in trade or commerce from representing a component of a price when making a representation about the price of a good or service, without also prominently specifying the single figure price (the total price) a person must pay to obtain the good or service, to the extent that a single figure price is quantifiable at the time of making a representation.

The purpose of the Competition and Consumer Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 3) is to amend the principal Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010 to:

• prescribe that representations that are made on a menu of a restaurant and which refer to the imposition of a surcharge on specific days are exempt from the component pricing requirement of the ACL; and

• prescribe that conditions relating to disclosure, prominence and transparency must be satisfied for the representations to obtain the exemption.

Source:

Explanatory Statement for Competition and Consumer Amendment Regulation 2013 (No. 3) (No. 177 of 2013) as reported in the TimeBase LawOne Service

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