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Australian Consumer Law (ACL)

Under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), businesses must guarantee the products they sell. These guarantees are mandatory standards of quality that products sold, manufactured, or imported by businesses must meet.

These guarantees set out consumer rights that apply when goods and services are defective in certain ways. Generally, businesses must guarantee their products:

are of acceptable quality.
match the descriptions made on its packaging, in advertisements and by the business.
be fit for the purpose the business told you it would be fit for and
be fit for any purpose you told the business it would be used for prior to purchase.

A number of guarantees also apply to services provided by a business. Examples of a service include building or plumbing services, and tutoring services. Businesses must guarantee that their services are:

provided with care and skill.
fit for the purpose the business told said it would be fit for and
carried out within a reasonable time.

Further Information

You may also wish to read the following fact sheets for more information on specific protections provided under the ACL:
Consumer guarantees fact sheet
Unsolicited Consumer Agreements fact sheet

To find out more about your rights when buying goods and services in Australia, you can watch the videos prepared by Australian consumer protection agencies called ‘My Consumer Rights’.

To access these videos in other languages, click the links below.

If you believe a business has breached your consumer rights, or would like further advice please, please message us using the form below for a confidential discussion, or scroll down to see other ways to reach us.