How The Competition And Consumer Act Affect Australian Business

Consumer right is the right to have information or the right to know about the potency, quality, quantity, price, purity and standard of goods and services. The consumers should be protected from unfair trade practices. It is very important and mandatory for the consumers to know their rights. If they know their rights properly then they can be saved from exploitation from the shop keepers. To safeguard the consumers and their rights the Consumer Protection Act of 1986 has been introduced. It ensures correct information to the consumers and fair competition in the market. But on the other side consumers are also exploited. Many people are cheated by low quality or duplicate products but people do not claim for it. Nowadays we are not able to find the duplicate and original products. There are many consumer rights but there are some facts and myths too. Most of the people are not aware of their consumer rights and who to complain once any of the rights are infringed. Though consumer rights are provided with each and every consumer should be aware of the products which they buy. On the one side consumers are protected by their rights on the other side consumers are being cheated by attractive advertisements, guarantees, warranty etc.

The economics of supply and demand suggest that output restriction will increase demand which in turn will increase prices. Consequently, output restriction can affect prices in much the same way as price fixing. Those four forms of cartel conduct exist when the individuals or businesses agree to act together for competition fairly and maintain profits. Moreover, there are other anti-competitive practices such as boycotts and misuse of market power. A boycott is an agreement between two or more parties not to deal with a third party, or to do so only upon certain terms. On the other hand, misuse of market power is the individuals or businesses who use their market power for the purpose of eliminating or substantially damaging a competitor or make barriers to enter into the market. The ACCC educates consumers and businesses as to their right and responsibilities under the CCA.

Antitrust law in the United States is a collection of federal and state government laws regulating the conduct and organization of business corporations with the intent to promote fair competition in an open-market economy for the benefit of the public. Congress passed the first antitrust statute, the Sherman Antitrust Act, in 1890 in response to the public outrage toward big business. In 1914, Congress passed two additional antitrust laws: the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Clayton Act. (The Antitrust Laws. Web.)

A consumer defined in the Fair Trading Act 1987 (NSW) is ‘any person who acquires goods and services from a supplier’. The Industrial Revolution resulted in most goods being mass produced; often with little or no contact between manufacturer and consumer. This meant that the law moved from the laissez-faire approach (leaving things to take their own course) to consumer affairs and notion of caveat emptor (Latin for Let buyer beware). Due to the never ending failure of laissez-failure approach, a number of legal and non-legal measures were introduced which had different levels of effectiveness in achieving justice for consumers. Government regulation such as Trade Practises Act which includes Advertising and Marketing regulation, Fair

The essay will firstly explore what is clearly working within the system in support of protecting consumer rights. The ACL will be looked at in detail with a focus on product safety as an example.

This essay will discuss the requirements for a legally binding contract, elements for establishing misrepresentation in a court and some elements of the Australian Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Mr Manfredi entered into a bilateral contact with Elvis Eggplant who is the director of the vegetarian café HappyHippie.

Section 50 of the ACL prohibits harassment and coercion in relation to repayment for goods and services, which aims to protect consumers from harassment

Introduced on 1 January 2011, Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is a single, Australia-wide law that governs and protects fair trading practices. ACL is a sub-section of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and is administered and enforced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Queensland Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

For example, when Coca- Cola Enterprises Ltd advertises a beverage the company is not to say, “PepsiCo is a waste of money” but is allowed to say, “Coca- Cola reaches the top.” This legislation would limit the market planning of the company.

There are a number of steps involved in the property title process. However, this has changed over the years due legislation such as the land protection act, introduced in the 1900s. Still, many of the original process steps are used today it requires detail gathering and documenting information. Nevertheless in the first step is the initial request for a title. Many times, it has performed out without involving and buyer Black (2001). However, this step perhaps identified as a task that records the land in its present state. Secondly, an on-site examination then performed. The steps are compiled in a detail report that reports on the legal property name, location and any tax information related to the property in question (Black, 2001)

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is an independent Commonwealth statutory authority whose role is to enforce the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (ACCC, 2015). The ACCC promotes competition as it increases the prosperity and welfare of consumers and it also promotes fair trading and regulating national infrastructure for the benefit of all Australians. As the ACCC is there to benefit Australian consumers, they will take action to any business that breaches what they enforce which includes anything to improve consumer welfare, protect competition or stop conduct that is anti-competitive or harmful to consumers.

The Australian Consumer Law commenced on 1 January 2011. It is a national, generic law, which applies in the same way to all sectors in all Australian jurisdictions (Australian Consumer Law 2010). This means that all consumers in Australia enjoy the same rights and all businesses have the same obligations. The ACL covers general standard of business conduct, prohibits unfair trading practices, regulates specific types of business to consumer transaction, provides basic consumer guarantees for good and services and regulates the safety of consumer products and product related services (Australian Consumer Law 2010).

Consumer guarantees are a set of rules that apply to goods and services purchased by shoppers under the Australian Consumer Law. These laws have come into being through years of legal disputes. Through the years several legislations have been made and further improved upon according to these cases, this includes the Fair Trading Act of NSW in 1987 and the Trade Practices Act of 1974.

A strengthened consumer protection framework – in summary, consumer agencies continued to focus on policy improvements, including the extension of unfair contract term protections to small business. We can expect any emerging consumer issues be addressed by consumer agencies in a collaborative manner.

Competition has became evident and essential in the market of the world’s most important companies. It has allowed consumers to receive ultimate value from the goods and services that they are seeking. In my case study this competition is between two companies that produce ponchos for the fashion industry. The company that we are introduced with is named Tela and their running mate, Saira, is the Goliath of this market. Tela is trying to stay afloat and gain more customers as the underdog. Their plan to reach out to prospective customers is to introduce their new marketing strategy. This strategy includes Tela’s new mission statement which would make consumers aware of their core values and advantages over the Saira. Tela is owned by