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Meet your obligations under consumer law

We work out which consumer law obligations actually apply to you, and fix the documents that do not meet them.

If you sell to consumers or small businesses, the Australian Consumer Law applies to you. It applies whether or not you have read it, and your contract cannot switch it off. We tell you which obligations bite in your business. Then we put your terms, refund policy and marketing on the right side of them.

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Only the rules that apply to you

We map the obligations that attach to what you actually sell, rather than handing you the whole Act.

Documents that match the law

Terms, refund policy and marketing reviewed against current requirements and corrected where they fall short.

An answer ready in advance

If a customer complains or a regulator asks, you already know where you stand.

What the Australian Consumer Law asks of a business

The Australian Consumer Law is the national set of rules covering what customers are entitled to and what businesses supplying them must do. It sits in Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) and applies automatically to consumer and many small business dealings.

It covers more ground than most people expect. Consumer guarantees that cannot be contracted out of. Rules about what you may say in advertising. Unfair terms in standard form contracts. The obligations arrive with the customer rather than with the contract, which is how a business can be exposed without agreeing to anything.

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What are consumer guarantees?

They are rights that attach automatically to goods and services supplied to consumers, under Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). Goods must be of acceptable quality, fit for a disclosed purpose, and match their description. Services must be provided with due care and skill. You cannot contract out of them.

What counts as misleading or deceptive conduct?

Conduct in trade or commerce that misleads or deceives, or is likely to. It covers advertising, product descriptions, pricing, testimonials and comparisons with competitors. The test is objective, so you do not have to intend to mislead anyone. That is what catches most businesses out.

What changed in 2023 with unfair contract terms?

Before November 2023 an unfair term in a standard form contract was void, but including one was not itself unlawful. Now it is, with substantial civil penalties, and the small business threshold was widened. If you use standard form contracts, they need to be looked at against the current rules.

What can a refund policy say?

It cannot misstate the rights the law already gives. No refunds under any circumstances, store credit only, or original packaging as a condition of a remedy are the common ones that fail. A policy can set out your own returns process, as long as it sits alongside the consumer guarantees rather than replacing them.

Your refund policy is a statement about your customers' legal rights

So is every claim in your advertising and every term in your standard contract. Each one applies to every customer who reads it.

The obligations arrive with the customer, not with your contract

Most businesses find out what the Australian Consumer Law requires when a customer complains or a regulator writes. Until then the refund policy, the marketing claims and the standard terms sit unexamined.

The 2023 changes to the unfair contract terms rules made this sharper. A term that was merely void before can now attract a penalty. Plenty of standard form contracts in daily use have not been looked at since.

We will identify which Australian Consumer Law obligations apply to what you sell and who you sell to.
We will review your terms and conditions, refund and returns policy and marketing for compliance.
We will assess your standard form contracts against the unfair contract terms regime.
We will advise on your consumer guarantee obligations and how to handle them in practice.
We will set out the practical changes needed and help you make them.

When you want to know you are on the right side of it

You supply goods or services to consumers or small businesses. You would like some confidence that your marketing, your terms, your refund policy and the way you handle complaints all meet what the law requires. You know the rules changed recently. You are not sure whether your documents changed with them.

What's included in your consumer law compliance service

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Non-compliance is usually ordinary practice nobody checked

Businesses that breach the Australian Consumer Law rarely set out to. A refund policy that says no refunds, when the guarantees say otherwise. A marketing claim nobody can substantiate. A standard form contract with a term that is now unfair under the 2023 rules.

None of that is exotic. It is ordinary practice that nobody has checked. The cost when it surfaces is rarely just the remedy for one customer. ACCC enforcement is public, and a refund policy that misstated rights applied to every customer who read it.

From practices nobody checked to a position you can defend

We start with what you sell and to whom, because that decides which obligations apply. Then we read your terms, refund policy and marketing against those obligations rather than against the law in general.

Where there are gaps we tell you what has to change and what can stay. You end up with documents that say what the law requires them to say. You also have a clear answer ready if a customer or a regulator asks.

How the compliance review runs

From obligations you have not mapped to practices you can defend.

Map the obligations

We work out which parts of the Australian Consumer Law apply given what you sell and who buys it.

Review the documents

We read your terms, refund policy and marketing against those obligations and tell you where the gaps are.

Make the changes

We redraft what needs redrafting and advise on the process changes that go with it.

Australian Consumer Law compliance, checked against how you actually trade

Consumer law reads like a large subject and it is. Only a handful of it usually applies to any one business. Most of the work is finding out which handful, rather than reading the whole thing.

We review terms, refund policies and marketing against the obligations that actually attach to what you sell. Where something has to change we say what and why, and keep the change as small as it can be. We have 2 Accredited Specialists in Business Law.

Our great lawyer guarantee

Six principles we hold to, whatever you bring us and however long it takes.

Take the time

We listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve, then step you through the advice and the documents.

Share our knowledge

We pass on as much as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions.

Stick to our knitting

We only do what we are good at, so you never pay for our learning.

Work as one team

Someone is always available to answer your question or point you the right way.

Fair pricing

A fixed or capped quote for advice and documents, so you do not carry the price risk.

It is your show

We are in it for a front row seat to witness your success, not for our egos.

Find out where you stand before a customer tells you

A consumer law problem is cheapest while it is still only in your documents. Once a customer has relied on a policy or a claim, the exposure is already there. Send us your terms, your refund policy and a sample of your marketing. We will tell you what needs to change.

Speak to a lawyer 1300 654 590