The Trade Practices Amendment (Australian Consumer Law) Bill (No. 2) 2010 has been introduced into Parliament.
The Bill represents stage 2 of amendments to the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TP Act) as part of a plan to create a single national consumer law for Australia, including a national product safety law. (Part 1 was passed earlier this week and will start on 1 January 2011:see here)
The Bill changes the name of the TP Act to the “Competition and Consumer Act 2010”.
The Bill’s changes include:
• incorporating the fair trading and consumer protection provisions of the TP Act into the ACL, including unfair contract terms and provisions implementing enhanced enforcement powers, penalties and redress options;
• creating a national legislative scheme for consumer product safety, to replace the existing Commonwealth, State and Territory regulatory schemes;
• creating a national legislative scheme for statutory consumer guarantees, to replace the existing Commonwealth and State and Territory legislation concerning implied conditions and warranties in consumer transactions; and
• augmenting the fair trading and consumer protection provisions of the TP Act with changes drawn from existing provisions of the consumer laws of the States and Territories.
The Senate Economics Legislation Committee has a new inquiry into the Bill.
