Following our update on Wednesday 17 March 2010, we report that the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Bill 2009 (2009 Bill) has now been passed by the House of Representatives and is awaiting Royal Assent. When Royal Assent has been received, the Bill will be known as the Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Act (No. 1) 2010.
The start date for the unfair contract terms provisions of the 2009 Bill will be no earlier than 1 July 2010. The remainder of the Australian Consumer Law (including the 2010 Bill referred to below) is expected to be operational on 1 January 2011. However, these dates are still to be confirmed.
The 2009 Bill is the first stage of the Government’s Australian Consumer Law initiative. This week also saw the introduction of the second stage of the initiative. The Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Bill (No. 2) 2010 (2010 Bill) was introduced into the House of Representatives on Wednesday 17 March 2010. On Thursday 18 March 2010, the Senate referred the 2010 Bill to the Senate Economics Committee for inquiry and report by 21 May 2010. The reason for the referral was to enable the Senate—through the Committee process—to give adequate consideration to this very substantial reform of Australia’s consumer protection laws.
In terms of understanding the different aspects of stage 1 and stage 2 of the Australian Consumer Law initiative, the explanation provided by the second reading speech for the 2010 Bill is helpful:
- The 2009 Bill provided for the introduction of the Australian Consumer Law as a schedule to the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (Trade Practices Act). It also created the national unfair contract terms regime and enhanced the range of enforcement measures available to the ACCC and ASIC in enforcing consumer laws.
- The 2010 Bill completes the implementation of the remainder of the Australian Consumer Law. It implements general and specific consumer protections, including prohibitions against misleading and deceptive conduct and unconscionable conduct, and provisions covering unfair practices and consumer transactions (such provisions to operate on substantially the same basis as the current Trade Practices Act provisions).
- The 2010 Bill also introduces:
- a new system of statutory consumer guarantees to reform and replace existing Commonwealth, state and territory laws, and
- a new standard consumer product safety law for consumer goods and product related services.
- Finally, the Bill renames the Trade Practices Act as the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and makes amendments to a range of amendments to other Acts such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) and the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) where such Acts contain consumer protection provisions.
In coming days, we will provide a further, more detailed update on the final text of the 2009 Bill and a more detailed analysis of the 2010 Bill. We will also be looking at whether submissions should be made to the Senate Economics Committee in respect of the 2010 Bill.
This article was written by David Cooper, Consultant, Sydney, Stephen Kerr, Partner and Lucy Wu, Solicitor, Melbourne.
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