Federal Government considering introducing new laws
The Federal Government will consider introducing new laws to curb unfair trading practices including websites that make it difficult to unsubscribe from services and aggressive business conduct. The laws sometimes dubbed 'don't be a jerk' laws appear to have some support from assistant treasurer Stephen Jones who says unacceptable conduct is going unpunished in Australia.
Transcript
00:00 I think unfair trading practices are things that simply don't pass the pub test or the
00:07 fairness test.
00:08 It's things like subscription traps where it's easy to sign up for something but very
00:12 convoluted and tricky to unsubscribe.
00:16 It's dark patterns on the web that might lead you towards making a purchase when you're
00:22 not given all the information to make an informed choice.
00:27 Unconscionable conditions on flight credits for example.
00:30 A whole lot of things that don't meet the standard, the very high standard of consumer
00:35 protections under the law now but which simply are unfair, designed to be unfair and don't
00:42 pass the pub test.
00:44 What's the current threshold that would make something illegal in terms of consumer and
00:49 trading practices and how do you draw that line differently?
00:53 Where would you draw the line?
00:55 Sure, so unconscionable conduct for example is one of the consumer protections in our
01:02 Australian consumer law and that bar is extremely high.
01:06 It's really, really terrible conduct designed to trick a consumer and the courts take a
01:15 really constricted view of it and look at the conduct of the business in that case as
01:22 opposed to looking at the impact on the consumer.
01:24 So what we're looking for and what we hope to see introduced is a prohibition that is
01:31 broader, more flexible, can stretch across more practices that are really unfair and
01:36 causing consumers harm.
01:39 So the government is considering options which would include a general ban on unfair trading
01:44 practices.
01:45 Some, as I said, have called this the idea, don't be a jerk law.
01:49 You've given there some examples of, not to put words in your mouth, but some examples
01:53 of companies doing things that are jerk behaviour.
01:57 But how do you define that in law?
01:59 Is this an effective general ban if it can't actually identify exactly what being a jerk
02:04 is?
02:05 Look, I think we've got examples overseas.
02:09 We've got examples, things like unconscionable conduct and misleading or deceptive conduct
02:15 are general and cover a lot of different business practices.
02:19 So there are plenty of examples we can look to where this kind of behaviour is covered
02:25 and can be defined.
02:26 And that's what the consultation paper that we're really looking forward to engaging with.
02:32 That's what that process will be all about.
02:35 And there are concepts like this in laws overseas.
02:38 How have they worked in other countries?
02:42 That's right.
02:43 There are concepts like this overseas.
02:45 And there were some examples in some news stories this morning where practices by a
02:51 provider of streaming services overseas were illegal and therefore not existing over there.
02:58 But they had been existing here until very recently because we don't have this general
03:04 unfair trading prohibition here in Australia.
03:08 The government's obviously put out this consultation paper today.
03:10 What do you think?
03:11 What are you feeling from what you're hearing from the government about their appetite for
03:14 change?
03:15 Well, look, it sounds like the government is appreciating that very high bar and, you
03:21 know, possibly too high a bar for things like unconscionable conduct and misleading or deceptive
03:27 conduct.
03:28 Therefore, we're hearing that the government sees the fairness in businesses operating
03:35 in consumers having choice and not being manipulated into purchasing decisions or entering into
03:41 agreements.
03:42 So, fairness is important and we need to look at the impact on consumers.
03:46 So, we're really looking forward to working on this one.
03:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]