SYD | Roundtable: Australian Consumer Law in Practice

Understanding the impacts of the ACL for businesses operating in Australia 

In today’s dynamic business environment, the Australian Consumer Law poses significant legal, financial and reputational risks for businesses operating in Australia. Whilst this legal framework is the cornerstone of consumer protection in Australia, the obligations under the Australian Consumer Law stretch beyond regulation of consumer relationships and impact many other business-to-business contracts and dealings.   

With a vigilant Australian regulator in the ACCC and the risks of significant penalties ever looming, it is essential to safeguard your organisation by making compliance with these laws a priority. In this session, we will discuss recent developments in three critical areas of the Australian Consumer Law: 

• statutory consumer guarantees, which offer protections for consumers with respect to defective goods and services, are about to be bolstered with the Government proposing reforms that will involve significant penalties being introduced for businesses that fail to comply with their consumer guarantee obligations; 
• unfair contracts terms remain a 2025/2026 enforcement priority for the ACCC and require businesses to ensure that many of their consumer and B2B contracts are drafted in a way that is ‘fair’ or risk penalties of up to $50 million; and 
• misleading or deceptive conduct is a concept that will be familiar to many in the context of advertising claims, but this prohibition applies more broadly to any conduct engaged in by a business in trade or commerce and Australian courts have recently affirmed that businesses cannot contract out of this liability. 

Designed for CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and other senior business leaders, this forum will provide participants with up-to-date knowledge and practical insights on emerging trends in this area, as well as an overview of how these Australian laws differ in practice from the German regime.