ACCC Compliance Priorities – Will They Impact You?

The Compliance Priorities for the  Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) was released in March. So what does this mean for you?

It does not at all mean this is exclusively where the ACCC is going to take action over the next year, and if you don’t fall under these areas you are fine or if you do fall under any of the priorities this is all you need to look at to be safe. What these announced priorities mean is that these listed priorities are where the ACCC is likely to focus the main of their attention and resources (again not all) for the upcoming financial year so you have a heads up that you could be in their sights.

Furthermore, it is a good reminder for business owners to regularly review their practices, systems and documents to ensure they are current and up to date with all relevant laws and regulations, and/or any new interpretations of laws resulting from any recent government guidance or court cases.

The listed priorities for 2022-2023 include:

• Ensuring that small businesses receive the protections of the competition and consumer laws and industry codes of conduct, including in agriculture and franchising. Compliance with the button battery safety standards.

• Promoting competition and investigating allegations of anti-competitive conduct in the financial services sector, with a focus on payment services.

• Exclusive arrangements by firms with market power that impact competition.

• Consumer product safety issues for young children, with a focus on compliance, enforcement, and education initiatives.

• Consumer and fair trading issues in relation to environmental claims and sustainability.

• Consumer and fair trading issues relating to manipulative or deceptive advertising and marketing practices in the digital economy

• Consumer and fair trading issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Competition and consumer issues arising from the pricing and selling of essential services, with a focus on energy and telecommunications.

• Empowering consumers and improving industry compliance with consumer guarantees, with a focus on high-value goods including motor vehicles and caravans.

• Competition and consumer issues relating to digital platforms.

• Competition issues in global and domestic supply chains, particularly where they are disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While their enduring priorities (these being regarded as so detrimental to consumer welfare and the competitive process that they will always regard them as a priority) include:

• Cartel conduct

• Anti-competitive conduct

• Product safety

• Consumers experiencing vulnerability or disadvantage

• Conduct impacting Indigenous Australians

NEXT STEPS

So again this is a good reminder to do your regular review with your lawyers, with a particular focus on anything in your operation that could fall under the above priorities.

If you do fall under the ACCC’s potential headlights, then you should be taking proactive steps now to ensure:

•  your documents, processes and systems are updated;

• you are keeping relevant records to prove your compliance if ACCC comes calling – or someone tries to  unduly pressure you by threatening to go to ACCC; and

• you have a written known set procedure on how to deal with any ACCC inquiries are to be dealt with.

Being able to show you take these matters seriously and quickly deal with and quash any potential concerns can not only save you time and money in dealing with these matters, but decrease business defocus and instead increase trust in those dealing with you that you know and do the right things, and also increase business value to your stakeholders.

For more information and the full details of their priorities please read more here.

If you have any questions or want to ensure your business and you are prepared and protected, then get in contact now for a no-obligation discovery call.

Please note that this is a general and brief update, it does not purport to be comprehensive legal advice relevant to your circumstances. Consequently, specific legal advice for each of your circumstances should be obtained first before taking or not taking any action in respect to this area.