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6 Fed. L. Rev. 287 (1974-1975)
Consumer Protection and the Trade Practices Act 1974-1975 (Cth)

handle is hein.journals/fedlr6 and id is 299 raw text is: CONSUMER PROTECTION AND THE TRADE PRACTICES ACT 1974-1975 (CTH) By JOHN GOLDRING* While State legislatures have responded, to some extent, to pressure for greater legal protection of consumers, consumer protection had never been an area of legislative activity on a national level until the passing of the Trade Practices Act 1974-1975 (Cth). Mr Goldring examines the effect of the Trade Practices Act 1974-1975 (Cth) on the area of consumer protection in Australia, and notes that the Act, in addition to introducing regulation of restrictive trade practices on a scale beyond that previously experienced in Australia, includes sweeping legislative innovations aimed to protect consumers. The Act is shown to prohibit certain types of undesirable commerical activity and gives to a wide range of potential plaintiffs the right to take action for damages and injunctive relief. The terms implied by law into contracts of sale of goods and hire-purchase are extended and similar terms are included in other types of contract. 1. INTRODUCTION There has been considerable comment on those provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974-1975 (Cth) (hereinafter referred to as the Trade Practices Act) which are designed to deal with restrictive trade practices and monopolies, and thus to supersede much of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1971-1972 (Cth).1 The announced policy of legislation dealing with monopolies is to reduce the ultimate cost to the consumer of goods and services by ensuring efficiency and avoiding excessive profits by suppliers by enforc- ing competition among suppliers. This is an essential part of any legislative program designed to ensure that a consumer gets a fair deal from an economic system in which he, unlike some suppliers, is in no position as an individual to influence. Similar considerations, particularly the relative weakness of the individual consumer and the relative economic strength of the supplier, underlie the consumer protection movement. The connection has not escaped the government, which has included in the Trade Practices Act some far-reaching but relatively unpublicised provisions intended to protect consumers. * B.A., LL.B. (Syd.), LL.M. (Col.); Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales; Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea and of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory; Senior Lecturer in Law, Australian National University. 'Levine, Aspects of the Trade Practices Bill 1973 (1973) 47 A.L.J. 679; Baxt and Brunt, The Murphy Trade Practices Bill: Admirable Objectives, Inadequate Means (1974) 2 Australian Business Law Review 1.

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