The New Consumer Guarantee Law and the Reasons for Replacing the Regime of Statutory Implied Terms in Consumer Transactions

The new Australian Consumer Law (‘ACL’) contained in sch 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) contains many of the consumer protection provisions from the renamed Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (‘TPA’). One new development is the consumer guarantee law (‘CGL’), which replaces the terms implied into contracts for the supply of goods and services to consumers under pt V div 2 of the TPA with a regime of consumer guarantees that apply as statutory rights. The CGL was enacted with the aim of harmonising and clarifying the law providing mandatory standards of quality in the supply of goods and services to consumers. This piece considers the extent to which this important new legislation succeeds in this aim.