Australian Consumer Law Explained: What the ACL Covers

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is a single national law, set out in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), that gives Australian consumers automatic guarantees on goods and services and bans misleading and unconscionable conduct by businesses.

What the Australian Consumer Law Is

The Australian Consumer Law sits inside Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), the federal law that also contains Australia's competition law rules. Government guidance describes it as "one law, multiple regulators": a single national law text, applied Australia-wide, but enforced both by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) at a national level and by a separate consumer protection agency in each state and territory.

Who the ACL Protects: The Consumer Threshold

Not every purchase is protected the same way. Several of the ACL's core protections, including the consumer guarantees, only apply to something bought "as a consumer" under section 3 of the Act, and price is one part of that test. This is also where a lot of online explanations get it wrong. Section 3(1)(a) of the ACL's own printed text still sets that limb of the threshold at $40,000, but the Act lets a higher amount be prescribed by regulation, and one currently is: regulation 77A of the Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010 prescribes $100,000. The number that actually applies today is $100,000, sitting on top of a lower figure that is still, technically, what the Act itself says. Describing the ACL as simply "setting a $100,000 threshold" is not quite accurate; it is a regulation-set figure layered over the Act's own default.

Price is not the only route into the definition, either. Goods of a kind normally bought for personal, domestic or household use can count as a consumer purchase regardless of cost. See consumer guarantees in Australia for how that fuller definition works in practice.

The Consumer Guarantees, In Brief

The ACL's central promise to consumers is the set of consumer guarantees in sections 51 to 62: automatic statutory rights that attach to almost every purchase of goods or services from a business, on top of and separate from any store warranty. The goods guarantees cover things like title, acceptable quality, fitness for a disclosed purpose, and matching a description or sample. The services guarantees cover due care and skill, fitness for a disclosed purpose, and completion within a reasonable time. None of them can be excluded by a "no refunds" sign or a term buried in a contract.

For the full list of guarantees and what each one means, see consumer guarantees in Australia. For what to do when a guarantee is breached, see faulty goods and your right to a refund. For how these guarantees differ from a manufacturer's voluntary warranty, see warranties against defects vs statutory guarantees. For how the guarantees apply specifically to services, see consumer rights for services.

Misleading or Deceptive Conduct

Section 18(1) bans conduct, in trade or commerce, that is misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive. It is one of the broadest and most litigated provisions in Australian commercial law, covering advertising, sales representations and conduct that creates a false impression even without an explicit false statement. A business does not need to have intended to mislead for section 18 to be engaged.

Unconscionable Conduct

The ACL separately bans unconscionable conduct in two overlapping provisions. Section 20(1) bans conduct that is unconscionable within the meaning of the unwritten law, essentially codifying the common law doctrine of unconscionable conduct as a statutory cause of action. Section 21(1) bans conduct, in connection with supplying or acquiring goods or services, that is unconscionable in all the circumstances, a distinct ACL-specific standard. Section 22 lists factors a court can weigh in deciding whether conduct meets that standard, such as the relative bargaining strength of the parties and whether a person was able to understand the documents involved.

Unfair Contract Terms

A standard form consumer or small business contract can also fall foul of the ACL's unfair contract terms regime under section 24, and that provision now carries its own civil penalty exposure, added by reforms that commenced on 9 November 2023. That test, and how it applies to specific clauses, is covered in full at unfair contract terms in Australia.

Current Maximum Penalties (A Figure Worth Double-Checking)

Search results and older articles about ACL penalties often still quote $10 million or $50 million as the maximum corporate fine. Both figures are now out of date. The penalty cap has moved twice in under four years. The Treasury Laws Amendment (More Competition, Better Prices) Act 2022 raised the corporate maximum from $10 million to $50 million (and the individual maximum to $2.5 million), commencing 10 November 2022. Then the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Act 2026 doubled the fixed-dollar corporate cap again, from $50 million to $100 million, commencing 28 March 2026, without touching the other two legs of the test.

As of March 2026, the confirmed maximum for a body corporate under section 224 is the greater of $100 million, three times the value of any benefit obtained from the conduct (if that can be determined), or 30 percent of the business's adjusted turnover during the breach period (if the benefit cannot be determined). For an individual, the maximum is $2.5 million. The ACCC has confirmed these figures apply to conduct on or after 28 March 2026; conduct before that date is assessed under whichever penalty applied at the time.

These caps do not apply uniformly to every ACL provision. Unconscionable conduct and unfair contract terms are confirmed to carry this exposure. Misleading or deceptive conduct under section 18 is instead most commonly pursued through injunctions and compensation orders under the ACL's remedies provisions, rather than as a direct section 224 penalty claim for the section 18 contravention itself. Given how often this figure has moved (a threshold change made by regulation, a 2022 penalty increase, a 2023 unfair contract terms reform, and a 2026 penalty increase), treat the numbers on this page as current as of March 2026, worth re-checking rather than assumed permanent.

Who Enforces the ACL

Enforcement follows the same "one law, multiple regulators" structure as the Act itself. The ACCC handles matters with a national dimension. Each state and territory has its own agency for matters within its jurisdiction: Access Canberra in the ACT, NSW Fair Trading, NT Consumer Affairs, the Queensland Office of Fair Trading, Consumer and Business Services in South Australia, Consumer, Building and Occupational Services in Tasmania, Consumer Affairs Victoria, and WA Consumer Protection. For where a specific complaint should actually go, see who to complain to in Australia.

Where This Page Sends You Next

This page is an overview. Each of the following covers one part of the ACL in full depth:

• Consumer guarantees in Australia, for the full list of automatic guarantees and what they mean.
• Faulty goods and your right to a refund, for what happens when a guarantee is breached.
• Warranties against defects vs statutory guarantees, for how a voluntary warranty differs from these statutory rights.
• Consumer rights for services, for how the guarantees apply to services rather than goods.
• Unfair contract terms in Australia, for the section 24 test and the November 2023 penalty reform.
• Online shopping rights in Australia, for how the ACL applies to purchases made online.
• The small claims tribunal in Australia, for the state tribunals that hear most consumer disputes.
• Who to complain to in Australia, for the right order to escalate a complaint.

The ACL also sits alongside Australia's separate privacy law regime for how a business handles the personal data it collects in the course of a sale; see the Australian Privacy Principles for that layer.