AUSTRALIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Greg Williams, Alexandra Rose, Sheena McKie and Suhaasini Jeyasothy, Clayton Utz
Increased penalties Penalties for breaches of the ACL have also increased with some offences now attracting a maximum AUD100 million penalty per offence. This doubles the previous maximum of AUD50 million per offence. Litigation In late 2025, in the first court judgment in respect of the mandatory button battery safety and information standards, the Federal Court ordered Fewstone Pty Ltd, trading as City Beach, to pay AUD14 million in penalties for selling toys, digital notepads, keyrings, lights and shoe accessories marketed or intended for children that failed to comply with the standards. The fashion retailer admitted that it contravened the button battery safety standards on over 54,000 occasions and the information standards on over 56,000 occa - sions between June 2022 and October 2024. While there were no reported injuries or fatalities suf - fered by children because of City Beach’s compliance failures, City Beach was criticised for failing to inform itself of obligations under the ACL and to comply with those obligations. It did not have any internal protocols and procedures to ensure compliance with the battery standards. The Court held that though City Beach did not deliberately contravene the battery standards, its ignorance was considered “astonishing” given the extensive 18-month notice period before the button battery standards came into effect. In May 2026, the ACCC also announced it had initi - ated Federal Court proceedings in relation to the but - ton battery information standard, in a first-of-its-kind action against an online marketplace. Budget measures and impact on ACCC’s enforcement priorities It is anticipated that the ACCC’s enforcement appetite and capacity will increase over the next four years if funding increases committed in the 2026 federal budget are realised. The federal government has allocated (on top of over AUD200 million in ongoing funding) an additional: • AUD67.7 million over four years to increase the ACCC’s enforcement capacity to deter companies
from engaging in anti-competitive and anti-con - sumer conduct; and • AUD15 million over three years to support reforms, including in relation to unfair trading practices and consumer guarantees, and strengthening Austral - ia’s product safety framework and safety standards (eg, by improving product recalls, advancing online marketplace reforms, and introducing standards for e-bikes and nationally consistent requirements for all e-micromobility devices). The budget papers also noted that the cost of these measures would be met from savings from the ACCC reprioritising functions and increased penalty revenue, estimated at an additional AUD164.2 million over two years from 2028–29. Class Actions Review of Automotive Class Actions Quantification of “reduction in value” damages under Section 272 (1)(a) of the ACL remains subject to con - tinued judicial consideration in a number of automo - tive class actions in the Federal Court. Section 272 (1)(a) of the ACL confers on an “affected person” the right to recover reduction in value damag - es from a manufacturer. These damages are designed to compensate for the lost value at the time the good was supplied to the customer because of a failure to comply with the guarantee that the good in question would be of acceptable quality or fit for purpose. In 2024, the High Court of Australia determined that reduction in value damages attached to the ownership of the good so that the right of an “affected person” to claim these damages ceased once they subsequently sold the good. However, the High Court did not settle how reduction in value damages were to be quanti - fied for subsequent purchasers of a good. Consumers who have sold their vehicle may still also be entitled to other damages under the ACL. Capic v Ford Motor Company of Australia is a class action concerning the sale of approximately 73,000 Ford vehicles fitted with a PowerShift dual-clutch transmission system. The transmission systems were found to not be of acceptable quality because they
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