Australian Consumer Law (Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Schedule 2)

Australian consumer protection law governing unfair practices, product safety, and consumer guarantees. Applies to businesses supplying goods and services in Australia.

13

Rules extracted

211

Obligations decomposed

16.2x

Avg obligations per rule

🇦🇺 Australia

Jurisdiction

About this regulation

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). It provides a single, national consumer protection law covering consumer guarantees for goods and services, unfair contract terms, misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct, product safety and information standards, liability of manufacturers for goods with safety defects, and enforcement and remedies. The ACL is enforced by the ACCC at the Commonwealth level and by state/territory consumer protection agencies. Major amendments in 2022 introduced civil penalties for unfair contract terms.

What AuditDSS covers

Source

1

Regulation

Extracted

13

Rules

Decomposed

211

Obligations

16.2x

Decomposition ratio

Each rule is decomposed into an average of 16.2 atomic obligations — the smallest testable units that can be independently violated.

Fully extracted & scored

All 211 obligations have been decomposed, titled, risk-scored, and embedded for semantic matching.

Risk scoring

Every obligation in ACL is scored across independent risk dimensions:

W

Obligation Weight

How critical within the regulatory framework

L

Violation Likelihood

How often breached in practice

E

Enforcement Evidence

Regulator enforcement history and penalties

C

Cascade Dependency

How many obligations depend on this one

Regulatory details

Full title
Australian Consumer Law (Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Schedule 2)
Regulatory body
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Jurisdiction
🇦🇺 Australia
Document type
statute
Effective date
January 1, 2011
Issuing authority
Parliament of Australia
Official source
View source document ↗

Who this applies to

corporationspersons in trade or commercesuppliersmanufacturersimporters

Key requirements

  • consumer guarantees (goods and services)
  • unfair contract terms regime
  • misleading or deceptive conduct prohibition
  • unconscionable conduct prohibition
  • product safety standards
  • manufacturer liability for safety defects
  • product recall obligations

Frequently asked questions about ACL

What is ACL?

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) is Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). It provides a single, national consumer protection law covering consumer guarantees for goods and services, unfair contract terms, misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct, product safety and information standards, liability of manufacturers for goods with safety defects, and enforcement and remedies. The ACL is enforced by the ACCC at the Commonwealth level and by state/territory consumer protection agencies. Major amendments in 2022 introduced civil penalties for unfair contract terms.

Who does ACL apply to?

ACL applies to corporations, persons in trade or commerce, suppliers, manufacturers, importers.

How many obligations does ACL contain?

AuditDSS has decomposed ACL into 211 atomic obligations from 13 rules. Each obligation is independently testable and risk-scored.

What are the key requirements of ACL?

The key requirements include: consumer guarantees (goods and services), unfair contract terms regime, misleading or deceptive conduct prohibition, unconscionable conduct prohibition, product safety standards, manufacturer liability for safety defects, product recall obligations.

How can I assess my ACL compliance?

Upload your compliance policy to AuditDSS. The platform maps your document against all 211 ACL obligations using deterministic AI scoring — not checklists or LLM summaries. You get a risk-scored gap analysis showing exactly which obligations are covered, partially covered, or missing.

Which jurisdiction enforces ACL?

ACL is enforced in Australia by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

When did ACL come into effect?

ACL became effective on January 1, 2011.

What industry does ACL apply to?

ACL is primarily relevant to the Food Safety & Manufacturing industry. AuditDSS covers 61 regulations in this industry sector.

Build a ACL compliance pack

Don't have a compliance policy yet? AuditDSS generates a complete compliance pack for ACL — alone or combined with other regulations your business needs. Every clause is mapped to specific obligations.

Policy

High-level commitments and governance framework covering ACL requirements.

Procedures

Step-by-step operational procedures to implement each policy commitment.

Forms & checklists

Ready-to-use forms, registers, and checklists for day-to-day compliance operations.

Multi-regulation

Combine ACL with other regulations into a single unified compliance pack for your business.

Already have a policy? Assess it against ACL

1

Upload your document

Upload your compliance policy, program manual, or operational document. AuditDSS accepts any text-based document.

2

AI maps against 211 obligations

Your document is scored against every obligation in ACL. Each claim is mapped to the obligation tree and evaluated for coverage.

3

Risk-scored gap report

Receive every gap ranked by risk priority with remediation guidance, enforcement evidence, and cascade impact analysis.

Related regulations in Food Safety & Manufacturing

Assess your ACL compliance

Upload your document and get a risk-scored gap analysis against 211 ACL obligations in under 5 minutes.