Discuss the legal protection offered to consumers in Australia highlighting the recent amendments to the laws and how these reforms might be extended.
Consumer protection is an essential and extensive system of laws intended to safeguard the rights of consumers and encourage fair trade and honest information in the marketplace . Consumer protection encompasses three key areas, known as unfair trading practices, losses or damage and finally, unsafe products. Protection from unfair trading practices is established through the education of consumers in regards to their rights and obligations, losses or damage is monitored by enforcing consumer laws against unscrupulous traders whist unsafe products are regulated through rigorous safety standards . Consumer protection also aims to prevent unlawful trade practices by educating businesses of their rights and responsibilities and protecting the marketplace from the unlawful practices of other businesses. The following reported discusses Australia’s legal protection offered towards consumers currently, recent reforms undergone by the system and areas potentially applicable for reform in the future. In particular the report looks in the Australian Consumer Law (Cth) 2011 and the widespread implications of the legislation.
Consumers in Australia are protected by an assortment of laws which are managed and imposed by Australia's national, state and territory consumer regulators. These various laws will generally apply only to business to consumer interactions, rather than business to business transactions . Over the past 10 years Australia’s consumer protection laws have undergone much needed reform. The Australian Consumer Law (Cth) came into effect from 1 January 2011 and has ‘repla...
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...02; 166 ALR 74
ACCC v Target Australia Pty Ltd [2001] FCA 1326
Dawson v Motor Tyre Service Pty Ltd (1981) ATPR 40-223
Hamlyn v Mark Foy’s Pty Ltd (1982) ATPR 40-316
Hardy v Your Tabs Pty Ltd (in Liq) [2000] NSW CA 150
TPC v Calderton Corp Pty Ltd (1994) ATPR 41-306
TPC v Cue Design Pty Ltd (1996) A Crim R 500; ATPR 41-475
TPC v Pacific Dunlop limited (1994) ATPR 41-307
Legislation
Australian Consumer Law 2011 (Cth)
Australian Securities and Investments Act 2001 (Cth)
Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth)
Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)
Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991 (Cth)
Food Standards Australia New Zealand Regulations 1994 (Cth)
Imported Food Control Act 1992 (Cth)
National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (Cth)
National Measurement Act 1960 (Cth)
Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (Cth)
Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth)
The role of law reform has responded rather effectively to a certain extent in protecting the rights of consumers. This is evident in the legal responses introduced to address issues of credit, marketing innovation and technology. These law amendments has effectively increase the protection of the rights of consumers to a certain extent, however loopholes still exist. Due to the increasing range of goods and services continues to grow and the failure of existing laws, the role of law reform has been significant in protecting the rights of consumers. Consumer laws were created to prevent deceitful activities, or unfair business practices, as well as serving a protection for weaker parties who are unable to protect themselves. However, laws were later reformed to enable customers to transact with confidence and protect suppliers, consumers from inappropriate business conduct and to reflect changed community values and circumstances.
This essay will examine key aspects of the recent implementation of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) 2011, which is the largest overhaul in Consumer Law in Australia in the past twenty five years. The ACL replaces 20 existing State and Territory laws into one national law , the legislation was enacted in two main parts as Schedule 2 of the renamed Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (TPA) - Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA) . Aforementioned this essay it will outline the key benefits of the implementation of the act. Furthermore it will critique the Act, whilst exploring the objectives of the legislation.
The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) was established to protect consumers in any legal trading activities in Australia. A set of guarantees has also been introduced for those consumers who are acquiring goods and services from Australian suppliers, importers or manufacturers. The guarantees are intended to ensure that consumers will receive the goods or services they have paid for. If they have problems with the products and services they bought, they are entitled for remedies, such as repair, replacement, and refund.
Australia, commercially would be at an advantage if contract law was codified. The common law system which contracts calls home, can only take on so many avenues and limits itself when stretched to cover new areas. There needs to be a national set of laws governing contracts on the commercial front and in general areas to overcome discrepancies across borders. However there still remains inconsistency with consumers, minors and business trade through contracts made online. The digital economy is not only one of the fastest growing areas but is forever changing and is definitely a prospect that needs to be covered. Effective legal safeguards against undue exploitation and advantage-taking in such online dealings would see Australian contract law remain in the global arena. The Australian public need greater stability and certainty from contract law, and codification is a step towards fulfilling that void by allowing citizens to be well equipped and educated on their rights and decisions.
“Consumer Protection.” Manila bulletin. 21 July. 2011. Global issues in context. 24 Dec. 2014.
The Australian Consumer Law ensures that regulations are put in place to regulate fair-trading between businesses and consumer. It is a national law that guarantees what the rights consumers have when buying goods and or services. For instance in the Australian Consumer Law ‘Chapter 2- General protections Part 2-2 Unconscionable conduct ‘ person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is unconscionable, within the meaning of the unwritten law from time to time’. Unconscionable conduct allows the parliament to regulate the way in which businesses do trading and makes them more accountable for their conduct. Unconscionable conduct ensures the interaction between a dominant and weaker party, which directly allows the parliament to prevent businesses using their power over weaker/disadvantaged members within society to sell products or services. Commercial Bank of Australia v
In an ideal world, consumers and companies would equally share the burdens of product liability and consumer responsibility. However, in the real world, we must make tradeoffs between these two. How we do this will not only affect our legal environment, but our economic and social environments as well.
The idea behind responsive regulation is that many components should be taken into account before different approaches are required, for example, the context and conduct of those that have to be regulated as well as the culture of that trader. The responsive regulation model also acknowledges the need for all enforcement strategies to be practical and appropriate to the context. The method was described in The Medical Journal of Australia as “soft words before hard words, and carrots before sticks” meaning that there should be softer sanctions first off, with the threat of larger sanctions if they continue to act in the way they have been. The foundations behind the responsive regulation are illustrated in the widely accepted regulatory pyramid from Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate. It clearly demonstrates lighter sanctions at the base, escalating to severe sanctions at the top designed to be sufficiently undesirable that it would prevent certain behaviours.
a. Princing When you present prices to your consumers, you should state the total price. This applies to advertising across all mediums. If you promote a price that is only part of the total price of goods or services, you must also include the total price (as a single figure) at least as prominently as the part price. It is also illegal to represent to consumers that the price of a component or components is the total price.
The Lex mercatoria was an international law of commerce governing the trades and disputes based on the customs and practices of merchants. By the nineteen century, the law of merchant was fully incorporated in the Common law, but the development of commercial law led to a conflicting mass of case law . Following the commercial community recommendations, European countries started to rationalized the commercial law by building codes . English law didn’t follow this path, but instead adopted a series of Act of Parliament focusing on specific area, such as Bills of Exchange Act 1882 and the Sale of Good Act 1893 . Finally, the rise of the consumerism forced the Parliament to recognize the separateness of certain commercial transaction and to adopted an interventionist approach that aimed to create a body of laws protecting consumers, such as the Unfair Contract Terms ACT 1977 and Consumer Protection Act 1987
Nsw fair trading reach to the public through attending community events, conference, seminar, workshop and information sessions. They educate people about their rights and responsibilities. Each presentation is tailored to needs of the community or business group. The australian consumer laws details out rights and responsibilities in all kind of trading situations.
When people think of predatory pricing, two main laws come to the minds of most...
It's very well known that a companies success is not only dependant on the possession of a good product or service, but the key aspect to a successful business is excellent customer service. As the market grows, now more then ever companies are emerging, they are offering very similar types of products and services. Successful customer service can be a way a business becomes original and unique, it can be the key to attracting and maintaining loyal customers. Good customer service can start-up a business while bad customer service can harm a company. An average customer that experiences an issue will complaint to 9-10 people about the problem. A customer that received support to their problem and a potential solution will tell at least five
Customer Service is the act of dealing with the customers needs by giving and delivering professional, helpful, high quality service and help some time recently, amid, and after the customer's requirements are met.
Customer Relationships is about building a relationship of trust and convenience. A customer wants the company they are working with to be intuitive. To know their needs before they do. They want to feel respected, they need to believe you are honest and have integrity. This relationship breeds comfort and familiarity and causes the consumer to continue to do business with your company. This relationship that is built develops a personal relationship, like a friendship and it is one that the consumer cannot get from the store down the road and it is that personal touch of sincerity, of knowing their needs, of servitude that will turn them into lifelong branded customers.