About this guide

This is one of six guides to the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) developed by Australia’s consumer protection agencies to help businesses understand their responsibilities under the law. 

These agencies are listed on page 14 and are referred to as ’the ACL regulators’. This document outlines how they:

• respond to consumer issues and evidence of consumer detriment
• use their compliance and enforcement powers > approach ACL compliance.

The approach outlined in this document does not apply to other laws administered by the consumer agencies. It complements any general policies relating to compliance and enforcement used by the ACL regulators.

These guides:

• explain the law in simple language but are no substitute for the legislation
• give general information and examples—not legal advice or a definitive list of situations where the law applies 
• include examples of the ACL’s application by Australian Consumer Protection regulators and by Australian courts. 

About the other guides

Other guides in this series cover:

Consumer guarantees 

Covers supplier, manufacturer and importer responsibilities when there is a problem with goods and services; refunds, replacements, repairs and other remedies.

Sales practices

Covers unsolicited supplies, unsolicited consumer agreements (door-to-door and telemarketing), lay-by agreements, pricing, proof of transaction and itemised bills, referral selling, pyramid schemes, harassment and coercion. 

Avoiding unfair business practices

Covers misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct, country of origin, false and misleading representations.

Unfair contract terms

Covers what an unfair term is and which contracts are affected by the law.

Consumer product safety 

Covers safety standards, recalls, bans, safety warning notices and mandatory reporting requirements.

Further information and copies of these and other publications are available from the Australian Consumer Law website.