ACCC Archives - Consumers' Federation of Australia

21 May , 2025

2025 National Consumer Advocacy Award – Applications Now Open!

The Consumers’ Federation of Australia (CFA) is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the 2025 Consumer Advocacy Award. This award recognises the best consumer advocacy campaign or project run by a CFA member organisation during the past year. If your organisation or group has delivered an outstanding campaign or project, we would…

9 May , 2025

Infringement notices issued for button battery information standard breaches

Australian fast-food franchise Hungry Jack’s Pty Ltd has paid penalties totalling $150,240 after the ACCC issued it with eight infringement notices for alleged breaches of the Australian Consumer Law by failing to comply with the mandatory button battery information standard. The infringement notices relate to a Garfield toy powered by button batteries that was supplied…

8 May , 2025

New ACCC CEO Appointed

Sarah Proudfoot has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the ACCC following an extensive external recruitment process. Ms Proudfoot started with the ACCC/AER in 2005 when she joined the agency’s Infocentre. She has since held a range of senior roles in the agency, including executive general manager of the ACCC Infrastructure Division between 2020…

7 May , 2025

Mandatory information standard for toppling furniture now in affect

Furniture suppliers are now required to provide safety warnings to consumers about the dangers of toppling furniture after the mandatory information standard for toppling furniture came into effect on 4 May 2025. Since the year 2000 at least 28 people, including 17 children under five, have died in Australia from toppling furniture and televisions. Each year more…

30 April , 2025

National Anti-Scam Centre warns that criminal ‘account compromised’ scams are on the rise

The National Anti-Scam Centre has seen a significant rise in financial criminals targeting Australians in phishing scams that scare people to believe that their bank accounts or cryptocurrency wallets have been hacked or compromised. These scams use a sense of urgency and fear to make people act quickly and use phrases such as ‘account compromised’,…

23 April , 2025

Federal Court finds Qteq and Simon Ashton engaged in ‘cartel conduct’

The Federal Court has today found oil and gas services company Qteq Pty Ltd and its executive chairman Simon Ashton engaged in cartel conduct in relation to the supply of goods and services in the oil and gas industry, following court action by the ACCC. The Court found that between 2017 and 2019, on five…

23 April , 2025

ACCC’s draft authorises collaboration on sustainable finance initiatives

The ACCC has released a draft determination proposing to grant authorisation with conditions to allow the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI) and industry participants to collaborate on sustainable finance initiatives for five years. ASFI is seeking authorisation for itself, ASFI members and other industry participants to exchange information to improve the integration of natural capital…

22 April , 2025

Apparel business admits to illegal activity

The ACCC has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from apparel business Hard Rock Enterprises Pty Ltd in which it admitted to engaging in resale price maintenance and making false or misleading representations about consumers’ rights to return faulty or incorrect products. Hard Rock is an Australian business which sells blank apparel to retailers on a wholesale…

14 April , 2025

Unsolicited door-to-door sales the target of Australia’s first Designated Complaint

Consumer Action Law Centre is calling for a nationwide ban on unsolicited selling in the first ever designated ‘super’ complaint presented to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). A designated complaint is a new power that allows complainants to raise an issue with the ACCC, which the ACCC is required to consider and come back with…

31 March , 2025

Advocates welcome ACCC Supermarket Inquiry unit pricing recommendations

The Queensland Consumers Association (QCA) has welcomed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) recognition of the need to greatly improve the national grocery unit pricing system in the final report of its supermarket inquiry released today. Unit pricing, (the price per unit of measure – for example $1.41 per 100g for a 765g packet…

20 March , 2025

ACCC opens consultation on assessment guidelines for merger reform

The ACCC has marked a further milestone in the transition steps towards the new merger regime with the release of the draft merger assessment guidelines for consultation. The merger assessment guidelines outline the analytical framework the ACCC will apply when assessing notified acquisitions under the new regime, reflecting best practice for competition assessments. While the new regime…

13 March , 2025

Scam losses fall, but the cost is still too high

Consumer Action Law Centre says a report released today from the National Anti-Scam Centre, Targeting scams, reveals a welcome fall in the value of reported scams losses for 2024 (down by 25.9% to $2.03 billion). Still, the huge sum lost by nearly half a million victims, in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, is deeply concerning. “While…