Five years after introducing a generic national consumer law, the federal, state and territory governments are seeking the views of the Australian community on how the Australian Consumer Law is operating in practice.

Your feedback on this Issues Paper will be a key component of the review. This is an opportunity for all stakeholders, including consumers, businesses, advocacy groups and lawyers, to provide views on how the national consumer policy framework is operating and what could be improved. 

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) commenced on 1 January 2011. It is a single generic consumer protection law that applies across Australia. This is the first review since the law was implemented.

The ACL is jointly administered and enforced by federal, state and territory consumer law regulators, and is being reviewed by officials from these regulators through Consumer Affairs Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ). 

We will use feedback on this Issues Paper in preparing an interim report. We will also use the outcomes of the second Australian Consumer Survey for consumers and businesses and a study of consumer policy frameworks in other countries to help develop the report.

We will release the interim report in the second half of 2016 and seek more public feedback on the issues and options. We will then prepare a final report to Consumer Affairs Ministers, by March 2017, which will contain findings and options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the ACL.