Australian consumers face inconsistent protections from scams across differing service providers. The Scams Prevention Framework Bill 2024 seeks to amend the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 to establish a framework for preventing and responding to scams. This bill digest details the key provisions of the Bill, providing context, definitions and international comparisons for the proposal.

Key points

• The measures in the Bill will:
  • allow the Minister to designate certain sectors as regulated sectors,
  • outline persons who are regulated entities, 
  • clarify what constitutes regulated services, and
  • introduce principles-based obligations, which require regulated entities to take certain actions in relation to scams, including taking reasonable steps to prevent, detect, report, disrupt and respond to scams relating to services the entity provides. 
• Contraventions of obligations may result in civil penalties.
• The Bill does not mandate compensating victims of scams. However, it does provide redress mechanisms to consumers where a regulated entity has contravened a civil penalty provision. 
• These mechanisms include internal and external dispute resolution mechanisms and taking legal action against the entity.