The Tangled Web We Weave: Complexity in the Australian Consumer Law

The paper will explore some of the complexities that have been added to the consumer protection regime in Australia by the passage of the Australian Consumer Law ('the ACL'). In particular, it will look at the new scheme of consumer guarantees introduced by the legislation and how these guarantees interact with other parts of the ACL such as the strict liability that attaches to defective products. While some of these difficulties existed under previous versions of consumer protection legislation, the ACL has done little to eliminate or reduce these difficulties. The result is that consumer law in Australia remains complex even after a major reform designed to simplify this area of the law.