Text size. Introduction As a business operator it's important you're familiar with consumers' rights for purchases of goods and services. If you sell goods, you need to guarantee the goods: are of acceptable quality match descriptions made by a salesperson, packaging, labels, in promotions or advertising match demonstration models or samples are fit for the intended purpose come with full title and ownership don't come with hidden debts or extra charges meet any extra promises about performance, condition and quality have spare parts and repair facilities available for a reasonable time after purchase, unless stated otherwise.
If your business does not meet consumer guarantees, you may be required to: provide a repair, replacement or refund cancel the service provide compensation for damages or loss to the customer. Under ACL, businesses also need to comply with requirements for: warranties, separate to automatic consumer guarantees, and providing proof of transactions. Your customers can seek compensation for damages and losses they have suffered due to a problem with a product or service in addition to any other remedy provided if you could have reasonably foreseen the problem.
In other words, customers can also recover losses that would probably result from your failure to meet a guarantee. Damages include the cost caused to the consumer as a result of the problem with the product or service. This is usually financial, such as costs of repairing damaged carpets as a result of a faulty leaking washing machine, inspection and transportation. It can also include lost time or productivity. Some goods may fail to meet one or more of the consumer guarantees due to a manufacturing defect or issue that would otherwise be the manufacturers fault.
The consumer can ask the seller to provide a remedy, and the seller is required by law to oblige. In this situation the manufacturer must reimburse the seller. The reimbursement amount can include any compensation paid to the consumer for reasonably foreseeable consequential losses. A supplier has three years to ask the manufacturer for reimbursement, from the earliest of the following dates:. If a customer complains to you about a purchased good and demands a remedy, your business is legally obliged to provide the appropriate remedy under the consumer guarantees provisions of the ACL.
Consumer guarantees — a guide for businesses and legal practitioners. A provision that makes unfair contract terms in consumer contracts void; A term is 'unfair' when: it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations arising under the contract; and it is not reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the supplier; and it would cause financial or non-financial detriment to a party. Chapter 3 — Specific protections: specific protections which address identified forms of business conduct, including provisions: Banning specific unfair practices in trade or commerce; The ACL prohibits certain false or misleading representations, the supply of unsolicited goods or services, participating in pyramid schemes, and practices involving the display of prices, referral selling, harassment or coercion.
Dealing with consumer transactions for goods or services; The ACL provides guaranteed consumer rights for goods or services, sets national rules governing unsolicited sales transactions and outlines five basic rules for lay-by agreements.
On the safety of consumer goods and product related services; A consumer product safety law and regulatory framework applies nationally, which includes the making of safety standards, the issuing of product bans for consumer goods or product-related services that could cause injury, the recall of consumer goods under similar conditions and the mandatory reporting of accidents in particular situations; A 'one-stop shop' website, Product Safety Australia www.
On the making and enforcement of information standards; The ACL allows the Commonwealth Minister to prescribe information standards about the information required to be provided by suppliers of consumer goods and of services.
On the liability of manufacturers for goods with safety defects; The ACL sets out the statutory rules for dealing with liability claims for loss or damage, including economic loss, caused by supplying goods which contain a safety defect. Any person, as well as a regulator on behalf of a consenting individual, may commence an action against a manufacturer to recover compensation where the person has suffered loss or injury as a result of defective goods being supplied.
The ACL provides that certain breaches of the law are sufficiently serious such that they may be treated as criminal offences, to which criminal sanctions apply.
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