Tamara Hunter, Peta Stevenson, Joe Saunders and Vicky Kuo explore the government’s plan to extend unfair trading practice prohibitions to small businesses.
The Australian Government announced on 14 March 2025 that the proposed unfair trading practices prohibitions, announced in October 2024 for inclusion in the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), will now extend to protect small businesses as well as individual consumers. This follows the Government’s focus on targeting business practices arising from gaps in the ACL which unfairly disadvantage small businesses.
The ACCC supported greater protections for small businesses in its submission in response to the Government’s initial consultation paper. In particular, the ACCC submitted that certain unfair trading practices disproportionately affect small businesses, such as:
- Large businesses taking advantage of their superior bargaining power to pressure small businesses into accepting unfair or unfavourable contract terms;
- Large businesses dissuading small businesses from exercising their legal rights by threatening commercial retaliation; and
- Digital platforms, which small businesses rely on to connect with customers, using algorithms and promotional tactics which lead small businesses to accept disadvantageous terms in order to remain competitive.
Treasury will continue to consult on the design of protections for businesses, including on whether a principles‑based prohibition should apply and whether specific unfair trading practices should be introduced in order to protect small businesses. The consultation will take place alongside the Government’s statutory review of the unfair contract terms amendments which came into effect in late 2023.
For an overview of the proposal and consultation process, including the pre-Christmas call for further submissions, see our previous summary here.
