Submission to Treasury Laws Amendment (Competition and Consumer Reforms No. 1) Bill 2022: More competition, better prices

The level of penalties in the competition and consumer law matter. Setting them at the right level will ensure that fewer companies mislead customers, engage in unconscionable conduct or limit competition in ways that ultimately lead to higher prices for consumers.

CPRC worked with the Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action) and CHOICE to strongly support increasing the maximum penalties in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

We called for the Federal Government to

• • Apply the increased penalties to the consumer protection provisions in the Australian Securities and Investments Act 2001 (Cth), which mirror the ACL;
• • Applyi increased penalties to breaches of the Consumer Data Right (CDR) regime;
• • Increase the level of penalty notices
• • Increase the penalties that apply to the product safety regime.