ACCC V Target Australia Pty Ltd (2001)

5704 Words23 Pages
During the twenty-first century, the role of the law in protecting the needs of consumers has become increasingly necessary as the range of goods and services has, and continues, to grow. A consumer, as defined by the Fair Trading Act 1987 (NSW) is ‘any person who acquires goods and services from a supplier.’ Today, every person that exists within a capitalist economic system, like Australia, is a consumer in one form or another. Every time we consume, we expect our needs to be fulfilled by the product or service we are acquiring. It is when these needs are not fulfilled that problems arise. Common law, which has operated in the area of contracts for hundreds of years, offers some protection to consumers. State and federal legislation has…show more content…
Target was in breach of section 53 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) which prohibits misleading and deceptive conduct. The ACCC through the court case enforced penalties against the non-compliance of this section of the Trade Practices Act and acted in the interest of consumers. The ACCC helped to protect the need of consumers to have honest and non-deceptive advertising. The Federal Court ruled that Target did engage in misleading and deceptive conduct and ordered that Target publish corrective ads in newspapers and on Television and apologise to all consumers who were misled by the company’s deceptive advertising. ACCC v Target Australia Pty Ltd (2001) FCA shows the effectiveness of the law, through criteria of enforcement particular to the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). Not only this, this case exemplifies the effectiveness of the law in relation to the protection of individual rights, as Target was required to redress its deceptive conduct so that the right of individuals to non-misleading advertising was…show more content…
Accessibility refers to the ability of an individual to use consumer law in order to achieve redress. Multi-million dollar corporations have access to the best legal advice and representation while most consumers cannot afford the cost of legal proceedings against large corporations. The law has attempted to rectify these issues of accessibility for the ordinary consumer through the introduction of alternative dispute resolution methods which provide consumers quick and inexpensive avenues for redress. One such method is mediation and conciliation. This provides consumers with effective opportunities to express concerns without going to court (and facing massive amounts of legal fees), although, agreements reached through mediation and conciliation are non-binding and consumers may still have to use the court system to achieve justice. The establishment of consumer groups, government departments and tribunals such as the ACCC and CTTT has proved to be a very large and important step in improving access for consumers. The willingness of these departments to prosecute on behalf of consumers has greatly improved access to the consumer legislative system for individual consumers. The fostering of dispute resolution methods has helped ease the financial burdens of court cases on consumers. Accessibility to consumer law is improving greatly with consumers even being able to access versions of the Trade
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