ACCC set for on-line blitz over unsafe merchandise

Unsafe merchandise in on-line marketplaces will face a more durable crackdown because the Australian Competitors and Client Fee (ACCC) makes it a key precedence throughout the 2025-26 interval.

The regulator will concentrate on points equivalent to deceptive or misleading promoting inside influencer advertising and marketing, on-line evaluations, in-app purchases and unsafe shopper merchandise.

The primary initiatives embrace encouraging extra efforts from on-line marketplaces, strengthening commitments below the Australian Product Security Pledge, utilizing information and intelligence, and rising collaboration with native and worldwide regulators.

“Lowering the prevalence of high-risk unsafe shopper merchandise on-line can be key,” stated ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.

“We are going to concentrate on systemic and high-risk product issues of safety for customers. And we’ll use a mixture of regulation, training for customers and for companies, compliance and enforcement instruments, the place acceptable,” she added.

That is among the many 5 key priorities in addressing unsafe merchandise that had been introduced throughout the Nationwide Client Congress in Melbourne earlier this week.

The opposite 4 priorities are shopper and product issues of safety impacting younger kids, lithium-ion battery security, updating obligatory requirements and bettering product security information to determine security dangers.

“These priorities are designed to answer recognized harms, and to anticipate the rising dangers that might form the way forward for shopper security,” Cass-Gottlieb remarked.

“They replicate our dedication to guard Australian customers and construct and keep their belief in markets in an period of change and uncertainty,” she continued.