Competition and Consumer Amendment Act 2013

The Competition and Consumer Amendment Act 2013 is a short Commonwealth Act that amends the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Its operative change appears in Schedule 1. That schedule inserts subsection 48(4A) into Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, which is the Australian Consumer Law.

The inserted subsection says that subsection 48(1) does not apply if two requirements are met. First, the representation must be in a class of representations prescribed by the regulations. Second, any conditions prescribed by the regulations for representations in that class must have been complied with.

This is an enabling amendment. It does not itself identify a class of exempt representations. It creates a legal pathway for regulations to do that later. For businesses, that distinction is critical. The Act changes the structure of the law, but it does not by itself tell you that a particular claim, label, statement or advertisement is now exempt.

This amendment becomes relevant when your business is making or approving a representation to consumers and wants to know whether the ordinary rule in subsection 48(1) still applies. The practical trigger is not the existence of the amendment alone. The real trigger is whether there is a current regulation that prescribes a class of representations relevant to what your business is saying.

In practice, businesses should ask four questions. What is the exact representation we plan to make? Is there a regulation prescribing a class that matches it? If so, does our wording and context actually fall within that class? If so again, have we complied with every prescribed condition? If any answer is uncertain, the safer reading is that subsection 48(1) continues to apply.

The note inserted with subsection 48(4A) also matters. It says that if the representation is in a prescribed class and subsection 48(1) is complied with in relation to the representation, there is no need to also comply with any prescribed conditions for paragraph (b). That means the regulation-based exception is not the only pathway. It sits alongside the ordinary rule and should be read carefully, not assumed.

This amendment matters most to businesses that make consumer-facing representations. That includes statements in advertising, packaging, labels, website copy, catalogues, social media promotions, comparison material, point of sale signage and standard sales scripts. If your business regularly communicates product or service information to consumers, this amendment is relevant because it may affect whether a regulation-based exception is available for a particular type of representation.

Businesses commonly in scope include retailers, ecommerce sellers, service providers, manufacturers, importers and franchise systems. It also matters to internal teams that approve wording, including marketing, legal, compliance and product teams. A representation may be drafted by one team, approved by another and published across multiple channels, so the amendment can affect several parts of the business at once.

Businesses are usually less directly affected if they do not make consumer-facing representations at all. Even then, the amendment may still matter where a business supplies labels, templates, approved wording or campaign material to others who do make those representations. The amendment does not turn on business size. A sole trader, startup and national chain can all be affected if they want to rely on a regulation-based exception.

The amendment does not create a broad new compliance code on its own, but it does create practical obligations for any business that wants to rely on an exception. The first obligation is not to assume the amendment helps you unless you have found a current regulation that actually applies. The Act creates the possibility of exemptions. It does not create one by itself.

The second obligation is to read any relevant regulation closely. The inserted subsection requires compliance with any prescribed conditions. If a condition is missed, the exception may not be available. Businesses should therefore avoid relying on summaries, old campaign precedents or assumptions that a similar claim was previously acceptable.

The third obligation is to keep the exact representation under review. A statement that may fit a prescribed class in one format may not fit in another if the wording, context or presentation changes. Website copy, packaging text and social media posts may all need separate checking if they are not identical.

The fourth obligation is record keeping. If your business decides a representation falls within a prescribed class, keep a clear file note showing the regulation relied on, the class identified, the conditions checked and the final wording approved. This is especially important for repeat campaigns, national rollouts and franchise systems using standardised materials.

The fifth obligation is ongoing review. Because the mechanism depends on regulations, the practical position can change over time. Businesses should check the current law before launching a campaign, changing packaging, reusing archived promotional material or updating product pages.

If your business is considering whether this amendment affects you, review the places where representations are actually made. That usually includes website product pages, app listings, online checkout messaging, packaging, labels, catalogues, social media promotions, email campaigns, comparison tables, point of sale signage and scripts used by sales or customer service staff.

You should also review internal approval processes. If a team wants to rely on a regulation-based exception, there should be a documented sign-off step confirming the regulation relied on, the prescribed class and the conditions satisfied. This is particularly important where the same representation is reused across multiple channels or by multiple franchisees, distributors or resellers.

For businesses with centralised marketing, the key risk is assuming that one approval covers every use of the statement. For businesses with decentralised publishing, the key risk is inconsistent wording that falls outside the prescribed class or misses a condition. In both cases, the amendment should be read as a prompt to tighten review processes rather than relax them.

The Act was assented to on 29 June 2013. Under section 2, it commenced on the day after Royal Assent. The legislation record shows the Act is in force.

The amendment itself is operative, but businesses need to separate that from the status of any regulations made under the mechanism. The Act authorises regulations to prescribe classes of representations and conditions. It does not itself identify any class. On the current official legislation record for this amendment, there is no regulation text identified within the Act that creates an exemption under the inserted subsection.

That means the practical position for most businesses remains conservative. Continue to treat subsection 48(1) as applying unless you have checked the current regulations and confirmed that a valid prescribed class and any required conditions cover your representation.

This amendment is best read as a framework provision. It gives the law flexibility to create targeted exceptions by regulation in the future. It does not itself announce that a particular claim, label or advertisement is exempt.

If you are reviewing consumer-facing material, the safest sequence is to start with subsection 48(1), then check whether a regulation-based exception exists, then confirm your representation fits the prescribed class, then confirm all conditions are met. If any part of that chain is missing, do not rely on the exception.

Businesses should also avoid over-reading the amendment. It does not say that all similar claims are exempt once one class is prescribed. The mechanism works class by class and condition by condition. A representation outside the prescribed class, or one that misses a condition, should be treated as outside the exception.

This page is based on the text of the Competition and Consumer Amendment Act 2013 as published on the Federal Register of Legislation. The key operative provision is Schedule 1, item 1, which inserts subsection 48(4A) into Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

Because this amendment works through regulations, businesses should always check the latest legislation position before relying on it. The amendment Act alone is not enough to confirm that a particular representation is exempt.