Product safety regulation in Australia is a shared responsibility between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the states and territories. In Western Australia, Consumer Protection are the regulators of product safety and have a dedicated Product Safety Unit that deals with enquiries into these matters.

If you think you have been supplied with a banned product or if you have serious concerns about the safety of a product you have purchased, please contact us by email or via our advice line 1300 304 054.

Banned restricted and regulated products

Under the ACL, Australian governments can regulate consumer goods and product related services by:

• Issuing safety warning notices;
• Banning products, either on an interim or permanent basis;
• Imposing mandatory safety standards; or
• Issuing a compulsory recall notice that requires suppliers to recall a product.

Due to the potential safety risks of dangerous products being on the market some products can be banned, have their supply restricted and, or have certain requirements imposed on the supplier.

You can find out which products are banned, restricted or regulated by contacting Consumer Protection on 1300 304 054.

Information you may need to give us

If you want to report a product, it is helpful if you can provide as much information as possible about the product and why you think it might be unsafe.

To begin an enquiry the product safety officer will need information about:

• the product, including date purchased, brand name, model number; 
• where you bought the product, (eg supplier’s name and address); 
• whether there were any injuries suffered, including the nature of the injury and medical treatment sought; and 
• whether you contacted the supplier at any stage and the date and response from the supplier.

If you have kept the product, an officer may contact you to arrange to collect it for inspection.  Please do not send the product directly to us without letting us know beforehand.

How we deal with your inquiry

When the Product Safety Unit receives your complaint, it is assessed and assigned to an officer who will conduct an investigation and will contact you to discuss the matter further.

They may carry out a range of activities, such as:

• lodging your complaints on the department database
• searching for similar complaints throughout Australia
• researching the product
• testing products against regulatory requirements
• liaising with retailers, distributors and manufactures or
• discussing matters with advisory bodies such as Standards Australia.

The Product Safety Unit will then decide the appropriate action to take.

After the preliminary investigation, the Product Safety Unit will decide if a further investigation is warranted. If the complaint file is closed at this point you will be contacted.

If the product safety group decides to investigate further it may be because of these reasons,

• there is sufficient evidence that a supplier has breached the product safety laws: or
• there is sufficient evidence that a product is very dangerous and might need to be banned, restricted or regulated.

The length of time for an investigation depends upon the nature of the issue. However, the Product Safety Inspector will stay in contact with you throughout the process of the investigation and will decide if further actions are warranted.

The product safety Unit check traders are complying with product safety laws and researches if new laws should be created to cover dangerous products.

Product Safety Australia website

The Product Safety Australia website, managed by the ACCC, enables consumers to find details all product recalls, product safety information and report suspected unsafe products.

Report an unsafe product to the ACCC https://www.productsafety.gov.au/contact-us/for-consumers/report-an-unsafe-product

Complaints about health or medical products 

Please report any product safety issues regarding medicines or other health goods, including sunscreens, to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.