Australian Consumer Rights

Legal Right and Legislation for Consumers in

Australia

Every consumer in Australia is covered by a set of guarantees provided and enforced by the Australian government. These guarantees are called Consumer Protection. They are imposed on all parties in which a contract is signed, which is a legally binding agreement between a consumer and the seller which entitles certain rights. These rights were introduced to protect against unethical trading from either parties. The Trade Practices Act 1974 protects consumers against unfair business practices such as misrepresenting the quality, origin or characteristics of products. It also prevents businesses from artificially restricting competition coined 'restrictive trade practices'. The Fair Trading

It involves one of the parties offering something of value. The other party must clearly communicate their intention to accept their proposal for it to move on to the next stage;

Acceptance: Acceptance is where a party agrees by either by either written or oral formats, or an act that communicates acceptance.

Consideration: Consideration is when both parties give up something of value in an exchange. This can take the form of anything, such as money, a car or chocolate wrappers.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of a consumer are as follows:

A consumer has the responsibility to educate themselves about their rights

A consumer should learn as much as possible about a product as possible before purchasing

A consumer should also read and participate in following the product instructions and warnings.

Breaches of this may incur a loss of consumer rights.

The responsibilities of a business regarding consumer rights are as follows:

Be aware of legal selling methods, such as the obligations regarding selling door to door.

Protect ideas, designs or business identity via trademarks.

Comply with product safety standards.

We aware of laws regarding advertising.

Supply guarantees, warranties and refunds if

The next step he should take is to go to: https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems/make-a-consumer-complaint which is an Australian consumer affairs government service, which aims to protect consumers for any breaches of the Fair Trading Act or the Trade Practices Act.

4. If all else fails legal action is the only option. It is a good idea to get legal advice first as legal action is expensive and may fail. If successful, he may even get more money than planned via other breaches of the law.

Conclusion

Every Australian should be aware of their consumer rights and be prepared to act if violated. Unfortunately, a majority of business in Australia still operate using unethical and unfair practices which are not suppressed because of outdated laws. An example of this which affects millions of Australians including myself are Internet Providers failing to meet promises regarding speeds. For example, a person may be paying for an ADSL2+ internet connection, but only be receiving ADSL because of physical limitations in their area. Internet providers are aware of this but do not choose to make the consumer aware purely in the name of profit. Outdated laws are limiting consumers from taking action against this, which is disgraceful and truly displays the ignorance of politicians at the