AUSTRALIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Greg Williams, Alexandra Rose and Caitlin Sheehy, Clayton Utz
• In May 2024, Australia’s national carrier Qantas reached an agreement with the ACCC to pay an AUD100 million penalty (and, in addition, approxi - mately AUD20 million in compensation) for false and misleading conduct in selling tickets on flights that had in fact been cancelled. This agreed penal - ty was confirmed by the Federal Court of Australia in October 2024. • In July 2024, an Australian supplier of loungewear was ordered to pay AUD101,280 in penalties for allegedly failing to include high fire danger warning labels on six different styles of its loungewear, as required by the Consumer Goods (Children’s Night - wear and Limited Daywear and Paper Patterns for Children’s Nightwear) Safety Standard 2017; • In July 2024, an Australian online auction business was ordered to pay AUD10 million in penalties for making false or misleading representations in the descriptions of hundreds of cars listed for sale on its website between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2022. • In July 2024, an Australian course and mentoring programme provider was ordered to pay AUD5 million in pecuniary penalties for making false or misleading representations to consumers in the promotion and sale of two education programmes and to pay students who had enrolled in one of the programmes redress totalling AUD14.7 million. The company’s sole director was also ordered to pay AUD1 million in penalties, in addition to being disqualified from managing corporations for five years. • In August 2024, an Australian operator of car park facilities was ordered to pay AUD10.95 million in penalties for making false or misleading claims about its pre-book online parking services. • In September 2024, one of Australia’s largest energy retailers was ordered to pay AUD14 mil - lion in penalties for making false, misleading or deceptive statements to hundreds of thousands of consumers about electricity prices, as well as for failing to provide mandatory information required by the Electricity Retail Code. • In September 2024, the ACCC commenced proceedings against Australia’s largest supermar - kets for allegedly misleading consumers through discount pricing claims. • In September 2025, a telecommunications provider was ordered to pay AUD100 million in respect of
unconscionable conduct and misleading or decep - tive conduct in its dealing with more than 100 Indigenous consumers, consumers with mental disabilities and consumers suffering from financial hardship across Australia. • In September 2025, the ACCC initiated pro - ceedings against four suppliers and three senior executives for alleged price fixing when supplying produce to a supermarket. Criminal penalties Examples of criminal penalties and referral to the Com - monwealth Director of Public Prosecutions are much rarer and relate to breach of the cartel provisions in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). By way of example, in 2017 Australia’s first criminal cartel case concluded with a fine of AUD25 million in a global vehicle shipping company cartel case. In 2022, the Federal Court of Australia sentenced four individuals to suspended prison terms in relation to price fixing of the Australian dollar/Vietnamese dong exchange rate and transaction fees charged to customers. This was the first time that individuals in Australia were sentenced for criminal cartel conduct. More recently, in 2024, the Federal Court of Australia convicted and sentenced two waste management companies (and the CEOs of the companies during the period of the offending) for criminal cartel offences relating to a price fixing arrangement for demolition waste services in Sydney. The companies were fined AUD30 million and AUD3.5 million respectively, while the directors each received terms of imprisonment to be served as intensive correction orders (including community service), monetary fines and bans from managing corporations for a period of five years each. Infringement Notices In addition to the above-mentioned criminal and civil penalty regimes, the ACCC also has the power – pur - suant to Section 134A of the Competition and Con - sumer Act 2010 (Cth) – to issue infringement notices in respect of certain breaches of the Australian Con - sumer Law. The ACCC may issue an infringement notice if it has reasonable grounds to believe that a person has contravened one of the provisions of the Australian Consumer Law specified in Section 134A.
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