Knowledge branch 01 · Seminars 1-2

ACL foundations and scope

ACL基础与适用范围

Legislative structure

立法结构

ENGLISH

The Australian Consumer Law is Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). The Commonwealth ACL primarily reaches corporations, while State and Territory application laws reproduce the ACL so that natural persons and other traders are also covered. Financial products and financial services generally sit under parallel provisions in the ASIC Act.

中文解释

澳大利亚消费者法位于《2010年竞争与消费者法》附表2。联邦ACL主要约束公司，各州和领地通过适用法把同一套规则扩展到自然人及其他经营者。金融产品和金融服务通常适用ASIC Act中的平行规定，而不是ACL本身。

Commonwealth ACL - CCA Schedule 2 and CCA s 131联邦ACL - CCA附表2及CCA s 131
State/Territory application laws create nationally consistent coverage州/领地适用法形成全国一致的覆盖
Crown bodies are generally bound when carrying on a business政府主体在从事经营活动时通常受约束
Employees, agents and accessories may create or share liability雇员、代理人和帮助者可能使公司归责或自行承担责任

Trade or commerce

ENGLISH

Most ACL prohibitions require conduct in trade or commerce. The conduct itself must have a commercial character; it is not enough that it happened inside a commercial organisation. The inquiry may consider the commercial activity of the audience as well as the actor. Genuine private transactions usually fall outside this threshold.

中文解释

多数ACL条款要求行为发生在trade or commerce中。必须是该行为本身具有商业性质，仅仅发生在商业机构内部并不足够。判断时也可能考虑行为对象所从事的商业活动，而不只看行为人。真正的私人交易通常不满足这一门槛。

Concrete Constructions v Nelson - internal workplace communication was not itself in trade or commerceConcrete Constructions v Nelson - 内部工作沟通本身不具有商业性质
Houghton v Arms - conduct can be commercial by reference to the recipient's businessHoughton v Arms - 可结合接受方的商业活动判断行为性质
Private sale does not automatically engage the conduct-based ACL provisions私人出售不会自动触发以商业行为为前提的ACL条款

Consumer test - ACL s 3

消费者测试 - ACL s 3

ENGLISH

A person acquires as a consumer if the price does not exceed $100,000, if the goods or services are of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use, or if the acquisition is a road vehicle or trailer principally used to transport goods on public roads. The buyer may be a business; the test focuses on the acquisition and the class of product.

中文解释

只要价格不超过100,000澳元，或该类商品/服务通常用于个人、家庭或家用，或取得的是主要在公共道路运输货物的车辆/拖车，购买人即可属于consumer。购买人可以是企业；测试重点是取得行为和产品类别，而不是购买人的身份。

Excluded: acquisition for resupply排除：为转售而取得
Excluded: use-up or transformation in production, manufacture or repair排除：在生产、制造或维修中被耗尽或转化
Business use does not prevent consumer status where another limb is met只要满足其他分支，商业用途不会阻止consumer身份
The $100,000 threshold replaced the historical $40,000 figure现行门槛为100,000澳元，不应再使用旧的40,000澳元数字

Core definitions

核心定义

ENGLISH

Always identify the statutory role of each person and the legal character of the transaction. Goods, services, supplier, manufacturer, consumer goods, consumer contract and small business contract each control different protections, exclusions and remedies.

中文解释

分析时必须先确定每个人的法定身份及交易的法律性质。Goods、services、supplier、manufacturer、consumer goods、consumer contract和small business contract分别决定不同的保护范围、排除和救济。

Goods include software, gas, electricity, minerals, crops, trees and fixturesGoods包括软件、燃气、电力、矿物、农作物、树木及固定物
Manufacturer includes makers, growers, assemblers, brand owners and some importersManufacturer包括制造者、种植者、组装者、品牌所有者及部分进口商
Supply is broader than an ordinary retail saleSupply的范围比普通零售买卖更广