Who must comply with Honour consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law?

Goods and services supplied to consumers come with automatic statutory guarantees that cannot be excluded.

Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (the ACL) imposes statutory consumer guarantees on goods and services supplied to consumers (broadly: $100K threshold or for personal/domestic use). Remedies vary by major vs minor failure. Manufacturers face additional guarantees including spare parts and repair facilities for a reasonable time.

Applies when the business has consumer customers or small business customers.

How the regulator frames it: All businesses supplying goods or services to consumers in Australia.

What triggers it: Supplying goods or services to a consumer.

Jurisdiction: Commonwealth law, so the test is the same in every state and territory.

Outcome across the 35 industries Rules Mate maps (35 of 35: yes).

The answer is the same in every industry: yes. Industry does not change who must comply.

Structure does not change the answer across all industries: for every structure the answer is "yes".

Size does not change the answer across all industries: at every size band the answer is "yes".

Each line is one run of the Rules Mate applicability engine for a single business profile, with the reason the engine gives:

• Pty Ltd company in real estate agents with 6–19 employees, turnover $1M–$3M: applies. Sells to consumers.

When due

Ongoing.

Frequency

Ongoing

Evidence to keep

Refund/repair/replacement policy, staff training, complaint handling records.

Status

Current

Priority

High

Maximum penalty: False representations about consumer rights — civil penalties up to $100M / 30% turnover (from 28 March 2026)

Rules Mate has not yet classified the audit or assurance level for this obligation. Any audit, review or certification requirement is set by the regulator source listed below.

• ACCC v ASICS Oceania (consumer guarantees) (2024): Retail return policies must align to ACL consumer guarantees — 'no refund' or 30-day windows attract penalty.
• ACCC v Qantas Airways (ghost flights) (2024): Selling services after cancellation or removing them from systems is misleading conduct, even if briefly transitional.
• ACCC v Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (2019): Misleading-conduct exposure includes deliberate engineering choices that misrepresent product characteristics, even where buyers are unaffected day-to-day.

• Button + coin battery safety standard (mandatory): Suppliers of products containing button + coin batteries must meet 2022 mandatory standard.
• Comply with mandatory product safety standards + bans (ACL): Schedule 2 ACL — suppliers must comply with mandatory product safety standards + permanent bans.
• Avoid unfair contract terms in standard form consumer & small business contracts: From November 2023, unfair contract terms carry pecuniary penalties — up to $100M per term (from 28 March 2026).
• Country of Origin Labelling for food (CoOL Information Standard): Food sold in Australia must carry country-of-origin labelling per the 2016 Information Standard.
• Notify ACCC of a voluntary recall within 2 days: Suppliers must notify the ACCC within 2 days of initiating a voluntary consumer product recall.

Rules Mate tracks 7 published obligations tagged "consumer law", 2 of them rated critical. For a professional services Pty Ltd company with 6–19 employees operating in every state, 2 of those apply outright. This obligation is rated high priority, and is an ongoing duty.

Regulated by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

ACCC: Competition and consumer regulator administering the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and Australian Consumer Law, plus industry codes and infrastructure access regimes.

• Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

CCA: Australia's competition + consumer protection law.

• Competition and Consumer Act 2010

Free tools that help with this obligation:

• Unfair contract terms checker
• Consumer guarantees checker
• Merger notification screener