Consumer Action believes that a regulatory scheme with well-designed rules will be ineffective in addressing industry or market-wide problems if it can only be enforced by individual consumers taking legal action against individual breaches of the law.  Enforcement by regulators is thus an essential part of an effective consumer protection framework.

This report was conceived in response to the absence of a public mechanism to compare whether, and if so, how much, enforcement work is being done by our various consumer protection regulators.  In the absence of such a mechanism it is not possible to know whether regulators have performed well in applying their enforcement powers effectively in the interests of consumers.

In its 2008 Review of Australia's Consumer Policy Framework, the Productivity Commission recognised that not only are regulators essential, but also that regulators should be visibly accountable for their performance. It recommended that consumer regulators be required to report publicly on their enforcement strategies and initiatives. It also made recommendations for a range of improvements to the enforcement powers available to regulators. The Commission’s work led to significant reforms, in particular the nationally uniform Australian Consumer Law, which came into force on 1 January 2011. Both the Australian Consumer Law and new national consumer credit laws3 include improved powers for consumer regulators to monitor compliance and enforce the law.

The report finds that a number of regulators do not report on their work well. Regulators have not reported consistently over time and do not report consistently in relation to other similar regulators to enable comparison. The report also considers enforcement trends of the various regulators and considers a number of specific enforcement cultural and practice issues. It is our hope that report will be the basis for a dialogue regarding effective enforcement and the reporting of it.

Six recommendations are made in the areas of:

• Improving the amount of enforcement work undertaken by regulators
• Increasing the accessibility, consistency and clarity of reporting and
• Ensuring vulnerable consumers were supported during enforcement action.