Commonwealth of Australia Explanatory Memoranda

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Bill] [Help]

TREASURY LAWS AMENDMENT (AUSTRALIAN CONSUMER LAW REVIEW) BILL 2018

                             2016-2017-2018



    THE PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA




                    HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES




TREASURY LAWS AMENDMENT (AUSTRALIAN CONSUMER LAW REVIEW)
                       BILL 2018




        SUPPLEMENTARY EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM



          Amendments to be Moved on Behalf of the Government



                       (Circulated by authority of the
      Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, the Hon Michael Sukkar MP)
Table of contents
Glossary................................................................................................. 1

Amendment to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Australian
              Consumer Law Review) Bill 2018 ................................ 3
Glossary
     The following abbreviations and acronyms are used throughout this
     explanatory memorandum.


              Abbreviation                          Definition
      ASIC                         Australian Securities and Investments
                                   Commission
      ASIC Act                     Australian Securities and Investments
                                   Commission Act 2001
      Bill                         Treasury Laws Amendment (Australian
                                   Consumer Law Review) Bill 2018




                                                                           1
Amendment to the Treasury Laws
Amendment (Australian Consumer Law
Review) Bill 2018

Outline of chapter
          1.1       This chapter explains the amendment to Schedule 7 to the Bill.


Detailed explanation of new law
Enabling regulators to use investigative powers to assess unfair contract
terms (Proposal 11 in the Australian Consumer Law Review)

          1.2      The amendment changes the location of a provision relating to
          ASIC's investigation powers in relation to potentially unfair contract
          terms.
          1.3      Currently, ASIC is restricted in their ability to investigate
          compliance and take enforcement action with respect to unfair contract
          terms. This is because their investigative powers are triggered by
          'contraventions' or 'possible contraventions' of the law.
          1.4       As the use of unfair contract terms is not prohibited by the law it
          is not possible to breach or contravene these provisions in the law.
          1.5        The previous location of the provision in Part 2 meant that,
          while ASIC would be able to investigate potentially unfair terms, it would
          not be able to use its full suite of investigative powers to do so. Moving
          the amendment to Part 3 of the ASIC Act ensures the provisions achieve
          their full policy intent. [Schedule 7, item 1, subsections 13(7) and (8) of the ASIC
          Act]




                                                                                             3