CPRC
INSIGHTS
NEWSLETTER
FROM THE CEO
Welcome to the revamped CPRC newsletter.
Quarterly, this newsletter will give you insight into the latest research on issues that matter to consumers and the big policy ideas from CPRC and other expert voices.
This month our focus has been on unfairness. We know we need new consumer laws to stop unfair business practices – but what should they look like?
Today we release our new report comparing international approaches to unfair trading laws. As part of the report research, we spoke with consumer advocates in Europe and the US. I was lucky enough to participate in some of these conversations and hear the passion and expertise of consumer representative groups across the globe. We can learn so much from listening to each other and seeing how ideas are applied in different contexts.
Australia now has an opportunity to introduce an unfair trading prohibition into our consumer laws that takes the best elements from international approaches. I hope you can join us for a discussion about what these laws could look like.
WEBINAR TODAY
Join us for CPRC Spark Series webinar:
Imagining an Unfair Trading Prohibition
Unlike other comparable jurisdictions from around the world, Australia currently does not have a general prohibition on unfair business practices. This event will ask, how would a general law against unfair practices work?
Register to attend or gain recording after.
Date: 27 Sept 2022
Time: 4pm AEST
Hear from expert panel
● Rod Sims
● Jeannie Paterson
● Gerard Brody
NEW CPRC REPORT
HOW AUSTRALIA CAN STOP UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES
Our new report is now available for download!
Unfair business practices cause consumer harm, but currently, there’s a gap in our laws to protect Australian consumers effectively.
This report:
– explores laws that ban or restrict unfair practices across Europe, US, UK and Singapore
– highlights lessons Australia can learn from international approaches to implementing unfair trading laws
– outlines the elements that Australia could consider when implementing an effective unfair trading prohibition.
CONSUMER HIGHLIGHTS
OP-ED FROM THE TEAM
RETHINKING PENALTIES
BY ERIN TURNER
You can’t fix everything with a hammer.
Often more than one tool or tradesperson is required to fix the many repairs that can go wrong in your home. You may need smaller tools for smaller problems, specialists for more complex problems and different materials to help repair what’s broken. The same approach applies to how we keep our markets fair and safe.
We need to give the fixers of our economy – our courts and our regulators – all the right tools to get on with the job.
The Federal Government wants to change how penalties will work for the Competition and Consumer Act. Penalties would be as high as:
- – $50 million or,
- – three times the value the company made from the behaviour or,
- – 30 percent of company turnover for the period when the behaviour occurred >
