Special protections for Australians in financial hardship have recently been incorporated into the legal frameworks governing the consumer credit, energy, water and telecommunications sectors. These protections have the objective of enabling consumers to avoid the serious legal consequences of...

Consumer leases are regulated in Australia separately from credit contracts. This has created opportunities for regulatory arbitrage and has resulted in significant harm to consumers. Recent reforms, which commenced on 1 March 2013, have addressed this problem by applying to consumer leases many...

The authors examine the influence of behavioural research upon economic policy-making, as it relates to the regulation of consumer credit and consumer financial services. Using the examples of credit cards in the United States and Australia, and retirement savings' infrastructure in the United...

Although young Australians are active consumers there is little evidence about their knowledge of consumer rights. The authors report the results of a survey of 207 Australian school students aged 16-17 aimed at ascertaining their knowledge of consumer rights. Focus group interviews were also...

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has stewarded the Australian National Financial Literacy Strategy since 2011. Financial literacy is increasingly recognised as an essential part of consumer protection, complementing traditional consumer protection mechanisms such as...

As part of the Australian Consumer Law reforms of 2010, unfair contract terms protections were implemented nationwide across most sectors that use standard form contracts in their dealings with consumers, including financial services. However, until recently, these protections did not apply to...

In 2019, the Australian Government invested the Australian Securities and Investments Commission with a new Product Intervention Power, enabling it to intervene directly in the market for financial products to reduce the risk of consumer harm. ASIC made its first Product Intervention Order in...