Who must notify ACCC of a voluntary recall within 2 days?

Suppliers must notify the ACCC within 2 days of initiating a voluntary consumer product recall.

Section 128 of the ACL requires a supplier of consumer goods to notify the responsible Minister within 2 days of voluntarily recalling consumer goods. The ACCC operates Product Safety Australia for recall notifications.

Applies when the business has industry: Retail trade / E-commerce & online retail / Manufacturing or industry: Medical devices & therapeutic goods.

How the regulator frames it: Suppliers of consumer goods or product-related services.

What triggers it: Initiating a voluntary recall.

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

Outcome across the 35 industries Rules Mate maps (4 of 35: yes; 31 of 35: no).

Structure does not change the answer in the 4 industries it can reach: for every structure the answer is "yes".

Size does not change the answer in the 4 industries it can reach: 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 medical devices & therapeutic goods with 6–19 employees, turnover $1M–$3M: applies. Industry: Medical devices & therapeutic goods.
• Pty Ltd company in real estate agents with 6–19 employees, turnover $1M–$3M: does not apply. Requires industry: Retail trade / E-commerce & online retail / Manufacturing or industry: Medical devices & therapeutic goods.

When due

Within 2 days of recall.

Frequency

When a triggering event occurs

Evidence to keep

Recall notification, communications plan, return/refund records.

Status

Current

Priority

High

Maximum penalty: Civil penalty up to $16.665M (corporations) for failure to notify.

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 Mercedes-Benz Australia / Pacific (Takata airbags) (2024): Recall communication must be unambiguous and urgent where there is a safety risk. Soft-sell recalls are misleading by omission.
• ACCC product safety — vehicle recalls (Takata airbags) (2023): Large-scale product safety recalls are tracked publicly. Slow performance attracts dedicated regulator + media attention.

• 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.
• Honour consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law: Goods and services supplied to consumers come with automatic statutory guarantees that cannot be excluded.

Across the 1,890 business profiles Rules Mate evaluates, these obligations apply to most of the businesses this one applies to, and are far more common among them than among businesses generally:

• Comply with mandatory product safety standards + bans (ACL): applies to 75% of the same businesses (8.8× the overall rate)

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 triggered by events.

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