About this guide

This is one of six guides to the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) developed by Australia’s consumer protection agencies to help businesses understand their responsibilities under the law. 

This guide will help businesses and legal practitioners understand the consumer guarantee requirements of the ACL. 

It covers supplier, manufacturer and importer responsibilities when there is a problem with goods and services, refunds, replacements, repairs and other remedies. 

These guides:

• explain the law in simple language but are no substitute for the legislation
• give general information and examples—not legal advice or a definitive list of situations where the law applies 
• include examples of the ACL’s application by Australian Consumer Protection regulators and by Australian courts. 

This guide and an earlier version, are based on material originally prepared by the New Zealand Ministry of Consumer Affairs about their legislation, the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, as consumer guarantees in the ACL are very similar to the New Zealand legislation.

About the other guides

Other guides in this series cover:

Sales practices

Covers unsolicited supplies, unsolicited consumer agreements (door-to-door and telemarketing), lay-by agreements, pricing, proof of transaction and itemised bills, referral selling, pyramid schemes, harassment and coercion. 

Avoiding unfair business practices

Covers misleading or deceptive conduct, unconscionable conduct, country of origin, false and misleading representations.

Unfair contract terms

Covers what an unfair term is and which contracts are affected by the law.

Compliance and enforcement 

Covers how regulators enforce the ACL. 

Consumer product safety 

Covers safety standards, recalls, bans, safety warning notices and mandatory reporting requirements.

Further information and copies of these and other publications are available from the Australian Consumer Law website.