AUSTRALIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Greg Williams, Alexandra Rose, Sheena McKie and Suhaasini Jeyasothy, Clayton Utz
Clayton Utz Level 15 1 Bligh Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Tel: +61 2 9353 4000 Fax: +61 2 8220 6700 Email: gwilliams@claytonutz.com Web: www.claytonutz.com
Introduction Australia’s product liability and product safety laws operate against a product regulatory framework at both national and state/territory levels. The Austral - ian Consumer Law (ACL) and product-specific legisla - tion (such as therapeutic goods legislation, consumer electrical safety legislation and food legislation) gov - ern how products may be brought to market and sup - plied to consumers in Australia. Two key federal regu - lators that are active in administering their respective regulatory regimes are the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Each of these regulators frequently reviews and announces their regulatory priorities. Regulatory prior - ities are developed and updated based on consumer safety concerns and market trends. The ACCC’s product safety regulatory priorities for 2025 and 2026 reflect the regulator’s continued focus on high-risk, unsafe consumer goods and the digital economy. These current priorities target competition, product safety, consumer and fair-trading issues in the digital economy (including misleading conduct and unsafe goods), as well as strengthening mandatory standards and improving awareness of potential prod - uct safety issues, especially for children’s products. The TGA has also released five core principles that will guide its regulatory approach regarding the manufac - ture, supply, import, export and marketing of thera - peutic goods in Australia in 2026–27. As a national regulator, these principles reflect the TGA’s ongoing commitment to the safety of therapeutic goods, public
education, and compliance and monitoring, including focussing on the use of digital channels to advertise or supply therapeutic goods. The TGA has also identi - fied 12 priority focus areas (which are to be assessed quarterly), which include listed medicine advertising, medicinal cannabis, software as a medical device and weight loss medicines. Significantly, both the ACCC and TGA have com - mitted to increased regulatory action and scrutiny of products that impact child safety. The emphasis on compliance and reform, particularly in the area of child safety, is discussed further under Reform and Devel- opment of Compliance Standards below. In recent years, this has included the introduction of new man - datory standards and strengthening existing ones. The ACCC continues to exercise a range of enforce - ment powers in relation to product safety, including its powers to issue infringement notices, accept enforce - able undertakings and commence civil proceedings against individuals and corporations for alleged con - traventions of the ACL. Increased funding has been allocated to the ACCC for those enforcement efforts in the 2026 Federal Budget. This is discussed further under Enforcement Action . In addition to this continued high level of enforcement action by regulators, product liability class actions continue to be commenced in Australia. These show no sign of slowing, although the causes of action being pursued have been evolving, with an increased focus on risk or propensity cases where it is possible that no person has reported injury. This is addressed further under Class Actions .
28 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook