The Federal Government recently announced the new responsibility of the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) to police carbon pricing claims and prevent businesses from using the carbon price as an excuse to increase prices beyond the Carbon Price Mechanism’s (CPM) actual cost impact. Businesses who decide to make statements about the applicability of the CPM and/or the extent of its impact should ensure that the claims are accurate.

Policing GST – lessons learnt

In 2000, the Government made amendments to the consumer law (at that time the Trade Practices Act 1974), inserting Part VB to specifically prohibit ‘price exploitation’ in relation to the GST. These prohibitions and the misleading and deceptive conduct provisions allowed the ACCC to successfully police GST price “gouging”.