Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading (Infringements) Regulations 2018

Mechanically, the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading (Infringements) Regulations 2018 prescribes which existing offences under the Australian Consumer Law (Victoria) and certain offences in the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012 are to be treated as infringement offences and fixes the corresponding monetary infringement penalties (regulation 5; Schedule 1). The instrument is subordinate legislation made under section 232 of the Act (regulation 2) and commenced on 1 August 2018 (regulation 3). The Regulations do not create new substantive offences: they designate particular offences in the ACL (Victoria) and the Act as eligible for infringement penalties for the purposes of section 219(1) and (2) of the Act (regulation 5(1)-(2)). The Schedule (Schedule 1) lists 108 discrete items, each pairing an offence provision with a prescribed penalty amount and differentiating the penalty for a natural person and for a body corporate.

The Regulations therefore operationalise the mechanism for civil‑style monetary enforcement under the Act by setting fixed infringement amounts for specified contraventions, rather than leaving the enforcement response to criminal prosecution or uncodified discretion. The instrument links to the Act’s infringement framework explicitly: regulation 5 uses the Act’s s 219(1) to prescribe which offences are “infringement offences” and s 219(2) to fix the “prescribed infringement penalty” for those offences. The document also cross‑links to other statutes for calculating monetary amounts: penalties may be expressed as fixed dollar amounts or in penalty units for certain items (see Schedule 1 items 103-108), and the explanatory details describe application of the Sentencing Act 1991 s 110 and the Monetary Units Act 2004 s 7 to convert penalty units into dollar values.

The Regulations have been amended: Schedule 1 was amended by S.R. No. 152/2025 reg 9 (Table of Amendments). The Table of Amendments identifies that instrument as the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading (Code of Practice and Infringements for Fuel Retailers) Amendment Regulations 2025; the amendment was made on 23 December 2025 and reg 9 commenced on 10 March 2026 (Table of Amendments). The endnotes state the Regulations will sunset on 10 July 2028, ten years after making, under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 (Endnotes).

The explanatory details supply implementation details on penalty unit conversion and rounding. They state that these Regulations provide penalties by reference to penalty units within the meaning of Sentencing Act 1991 s 110 and that section 7 of the Monetary Units Act 2004 is to be used to compute dollar amounts from penalty units. The explanatory details specify the value of a penalty unit for the financial year commencing 1 July 2025 as $203.51 and advise that the calculated amounts may be rounded to the nearest dollar.

In short, the instrument turns selected ACL (Victoria) contraventions into offences that can be dealt with by an infringement notice process and fixes the dollar consequence for electing that enforcement pathway. It sets out the monetary architecture for infringement enforcement under the Act, ties the regime into the penalty‑unit framework and identifies an amendment specific to a fuel‑retailer code of practice.

The Regulations centre on three legal concepts: (1) prescription of infringement offences, (2) prescribed infringement penalties, and (3) the interaction of those prescriptions with the wider penalty‑unit and subordinate‑legislation frameworks.

1. Prescription of infringement offences. Regulation 5(1) states that for the purposes of s 219(1) of the Act, each offence specified in column 2 of the Schedule is “prescribed as an infringement offence”. The Schedule enumerates individual offences by reference to provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (Victoria) (mostly sections 151 through 206) and to specific provisions of the Act (items 103-108 reference sections 106E-106J of the Act). The functional effect is that the Act’s infringement provisions (s 219) apply to those offences because they are prescribed by these Regulations.

2. Prescribed infringement penalties. Regulation 5(2) stipulates that for the purposes of s 219(2) of the Act, the “prescribed infringement penalty” is the figure set in column 3 of Schedule 1 for each item. The Schedule uses two formats for the monetary figure: fixed dollar amounts (for most items) stated separately for a natural person and a body corporate, and a small group of items expressed in penalty units (items 103-108). The Schedule therefore assigns a fixed immediate financial consequence to receipt of an infringement notice for a specified contravention.

3. Penalty unit conversion and publication. The explanatory details expressly state that penalty units are defined by Sentencing Act 1991 s 110 and values are calculated by reference to the Monetary Units Act 2004 s 7. The value of a penalty unit for the financial year commencing 1 July 2025 is given as $203.51; amounts calculated can be rounded to the nearest dollar, and the Treasurer fixes and publishes the value of penalty units for future years (Explanatory details).

Supporting interpretive mechanics are also present in the endnotes. The Regulations are subject to the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (ILA) rules about style, headings, examples, punctuation and provision numbers, which the endnotes say form part of the Statutory Rule (Endnotes, Interpretation). The Regulations will sunset under the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 ten years from making (Endnotes).

Conceptually, the instrument converts criminal or regulatory wrongs that are already in the statute book into contraventions that can be resolved by an infringement notice and a fixed monetary payment. It differentiates between individuals and corporate entities by providing higher amounts for bodies corporate across all listed items. The Schedule’s structure and the explanatory details’ cross‑references to other Acts operationalise enforcement (which is handled under the Act) and the mechanics for translating penalty units into dollars.

The Regulations primarily affect three groups: (1) persons (natural persons) who commit offences listed in Schedule 1, (2) bodies corporate that commit those offences, and (3) the agency or officer(s) authorised under the Act to issue infringement notices and manage enforcement. The Schedule clearly distinguishes the financial liability of a natural person versus a body corporate for each prescribed offence, indicating the Regulations’ practical audience and targets (regulation 5; Schedule 1).

Natural persons: Schedule 1 lists specified offences with a monetary figure to be applied to a natural person where an infringement notice relates to an offence. Those amounts vary across items: many entries are $750 for a natural person (for example items 1-15 etc), others are $500, $300, $150, or $150 for specific offences (see Schedule 1). Individuals who might be subject to an infringement notice under the Act for any of the listed ACL contraventions will therefore face those specified monetary penalties.

Bodies corporate: the Schedule systematically prescribes a higher monetary penalty for bodies corporate than for natural persons. For example, items that carry $750 for an individual carry $5,000 for a body corporate; items that carry $500 carry $3,000 for a body corporate; lower‑value items carry $600 for a body corporate where individuals carry $150, and some items carry $1,800 for a body corporate where individuals carry $300 (Schedule 1). These differential amounts affect directors, managers and corporate compliance teams because corporate entities will face the higher charge if an infringement notice is issued for corporate conduct.

Enforcement agencies and authorised officers: while the Regulations do not name an enforcement agency, the legal mechanism they feed into is the Act (regulation 5 refers to s 219 of the Act). The Act will supply the procedural and enforcement roles. The Regulations therefore affect any public body or authorised officer who uses infringement notices to enforce the Act’s consumer law provisions, because those officers will be guided by the Schedule when choosing the monetary amount set out on a notice.

Specific sectors: although Schedule 1 generally maps to the breadth of ACL (Victoria) offences (sections 151-206), the Table of Amendments identifies that the instrument S.R. No. 152/2025 is titled the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading (Code of Practice and Infringements for Fuel Retailers) Amendment Regulations 2025. That indicates a policy change targeted at fuel retailers was made to Schedule 1 by reg 9 of that amendment (Table of Amendments; Sch. 1 amended by S.R. No. 152/2025 reg. 9). Practitioners advising fuel retailers should be alert that the Schedule was expressly amended in 2025 with a code‑of‑practice focus.

The Regulations do not set out novel duties of substantive conduct; rather they perform two regulatory functions that define duties and rights in an enforcement context.

Duties established or affected by the Regulations

• Duty to pay an infringement penalty where an authorised enforcement process issues an infringement notice for a prescribed offence. Regulation 5(2) prescribes the monetary amount that is to be applied “for the purposes of section 219(2) of the Act.” The regulated duty (to pay a set amount upon receipt of an infringement notice) arises through the Act’s infringement provisions, to which these Regulations supply the prescribed penalty amounts.

• Duty to keep up‑to‑date penalty amounts. For entries expressed in penalty units (Schedule 1 items 103-108), the duty to calculate the dollar amount depends on the current penalty‑unit value fixed under the Monetary Units Act 2004, as noted in the explanatory details. Entities need to monitor changes to that value because the dollar amount for those items will vary annually.

• Implicit duty to monitor regulatory amendments. The Table of Amendments shows Schedule 1 has been amended by S.R. No. 152/2025 reg 9. A compliance duty therefore exists to check that the Schedule still maps correctly to an entity’s activities and that any newly prescribed infringement offences are incorporated into internal controls.

Rights established or affected by the Regulations

• The right to a prescribed, fixed monetary consequence. Where an infringement notice is issued for a prescribed offence, the recipient’s right created by the instrument is predictability: the amount payable is fixed by Schedule 1 rather than left to prosecutorial discretion or court‑ordered penalty. The amount applicable to a natural person or a body corporate is specified (Schedule 1).

• Procedural rights under the Act (not restated here). The Regulations refer to sections 219(1) and 219(2) of the Act as the enabling provisions. Any procedural rights to contest, seek internal review of or elect not to pay an infringement notice will be governed by the Act itself. The Regulations do not alter or restate those procedural rights; they only set the prescribed amounts. Practitioners must therefore consult the Act for the process to accept, contest or have an infringement notice withdrawn.

• Rights linked to penalty‑unit calculation. For items stated in penalty units, the recipient’s monetary exposure is tied to the Treasurer’s published penalty‑unit value each financial year (Explanatory details). That gives a predictability mechanism but also a fluctuating dollar exposure.

The Regulations set out the monetary quantum payable on an infringement notice and therefore directly shape the enforcement costs associated with each prescribed contravention. The Schedule lists 108 items and uses three main penalty bands (and a penalty‑unit band): $750/$5,000, $500/$3,000, $300/$1,800, $150/$600, and a penalty‑unit expression for items 103-108 (3 penalty units for a natural person, 15 penalty units for a body corporate). The dollar bands appear consistently across groups of ACL provisions and indicate a deliberate stratification of enforcement fines by perceived seriousness or policy priority.

Structure of penalties (as expressed)

• Predominant higher band. Many items (for example items 1-15, 16-22, 44-56, 78-82, 85-92, 97-99, 103-108 expressed as units) carry $750 for a natural person and $5,000 for a body corporate (Schedule 1).

• Middle band. A number of items carry $500 for a natural person and $3,000 for a body corporate (e.g. items 46-52, 53-69, 75-77). These occupy an intermediate enforcement level.

• Lower band. Some items carry $300 for a natural person and $1,800 for a body corporate (items 70-74). Others carry $150 for a natural person and $600 for a body corporate (items 43, 84, 93-96, 100-102). The higher frequencies at the $750/$5,000 and $500/$3,000 bands suggest those are the design‑core penalties for many ACL offences listed.

Penalty units

• Items 103-108 are expressed as 3 penalty units for a natural person and 15 penalty units for a body corporate. The explanatory details state that penalty units are defined by Sentencing Act 1991 s 110 and values are calculated under Monetary Units Act 2004 s 7: for the financial year commencing 1 July 2025 a penalty unit is $203.51; amounts may be rounded to the nearest dollar (Explanatory details). This produces, for FY 2025-26, a dollar equivalent of 3 × 203.51 = $610.53, rounded to $611, for a natural person and 15 × 203.51 = $3,052.65, rounded to $3,053, for a body corporate.

Enforcement implications

• Fixed financial relief for enforcement agencies. By prescribing fixed amounts, the Regulations make it administratively straightforward for an authorised officer to issue an infringement notice with a predictable monetary figure; the officer need only identify the contravention and the recipient’s legal status (natural person or body corporate) to apply the Schedule amount.

These Regulations are not standalone; they integrate distinctly with the Act and with the broader penalty‑unit and interpretation architecture of Victorian law. Key legal interactions are explicit in the text and the endnotes.

Primary enabling statute

• Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012. The Regulations are made under section 232 of the Act (regulation 2). Regulation 5 expressly ties the Regulations into the Act’s infringement mechanism by referencing section 219(1) and (2) of the Act as the operative provisions for prescribing infringement offences and their penalties. Accordingly, the Regulations supply the Schedule of offence/penalty pairs which the Act’s infringement procedure will apply to. Enforcement procedure, eligibility to issue infringement notices, remittance, defences and contestation remain governed by the Act’s provisions, not restated here.

Penalty unit and sentencing statutes

• Sentencing Act 1991. The explanatory details note that penalties are provided by reference to penalty units within the meaning of Sentencing Act 1991 s 110. That statutory definition controls the unit quantum where penalty units are used.

• Monetary Units Act 2004. The explanatory details instruct that the dollar amount for penalty‑unit items is to be calculated under Monetary Units Act 2004 s 7 by multiplying the number of penalty units by the current value of a penalty unit for the financial year (Explanatory details). The Treasurer is responsible for fixing and publishing future penalty‑unit values, and the explanatory details give the value for the year commencing 1 July 2025 as $203.51.

Subordinate legislation framework and interpretation rules

• Subordinate Legislation Act 1994. The endnotes state the Regulations will sunset ten years after making under s 5 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994. That statutory scheme governs the lifespan of the instrument and requires attention to the instrument’s expiry date.

• Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 (ILA). The endnotes set out that headings, punctuation and other style elements form part of the Statutory Rule and affect interpretation (ILA s 36 and s 54A references are discussed). This means that the presentation of Schedule 1 and its columns, headings and notes are part of the instrument for interpretive purposes (Endnotes, Interpretation).

Interplay with the Australian Consumer Law (Victoria)

The instrument as published includes explicit amendment metadata and a single named amendment incorporated into the current version. The Table of Amendments records that Schedule 1 was amended by S.R. No. 152/2025 (reg 9), captioned the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading (Code of Practice and Infringements for Fuel Retailers) Amendment Regulations 2025. The making date for that amendment is 23 December 2025 and its commencement for reg 9 is 10 March 2026 (Table of Amendments). Schedule 1 itself bears the text “Sch. 1 amended by S.R. No. 152/2025 reg. 9,” reflecting that change.

What the amendment note tells the practitioner

• Targeted modification. The title of the amending instrument suggests the 2025 amendment related to a code of practice for fuel retailers and to infringement penalties, and reg 9 effected a change to Schedule 1. The Schedule in the current consolidated version therefore incorporates the post‑2025 amendment state. Practitioners advising fuel retailers or businesses affected by a fuel‑retailer code should therefore review Schedule 1 as it appears now, because reg 9 explicitly changed the Schedule.

• Record of incorporation. The consolidated version is “Version incorporating amendments as at 10 March 2026” (heading). That confirms the 2025 amendment has been folded into the text and that the version includes the changes that commenced on 10 March 2026.

Timing and commencement implications

• The original instrument was made on 10 July 2018 and commenced on 1 August 2018 (Endnotes). The 2025 amendment was made later and a provision (reg 9) commenced on 10 March 2026. Users should note disparate commencement dates when comparing enforcement action taken in different years: the content of Schedule 1 and the applicable prescribed penalties may differ before and after the amendment’s commencement.

Limits on amendment history in this instrument

• The Table of Amendments in the instrument only records the incorporated amendments and provides the title, making and commencement date for S.R. No. 152/2025. The explanatory materials do not provide a narrative about why the change was made beyond the amending instrument’s title. To understand the policy intent behind the 2025 amendment (for example, the detailed changes to the code of practice for fuel retailers), one must consult the amending instrument and its own explanatory memorandum, which are not reproduced in this Statutory Rule text beyond the Table of Amendments entry.

This Statutory Rule itself contains no recorded cases or judicial decisions in the text or endnotes. The instrument does not carry a running commentary of court challenges, and the endnotes do not record any litigation having been brought directly challenging these Regulations. The only historical material included is the making and commencement dates, the Table of Amendments entry for S.R. No. 152/2025, and the standard interpretive notes referencing the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984 and the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994.

What the absence of litigation in the instrument means in practice

• No litigated precedents embedded in the instrument. Because the Statutory Rule does not contain a litigation history, practitioners cannot rely on judicial interpretation of these Regulations from this text alone. Any judicial consideration of the Regulations, their validity, or their application would appear in independent court or tribunal records rather than in the Statutory Rule.

• Where to look if litigation matters. If you need to know whether these Regulations have been subject to judicial review, constitutional challenge or applied in enforcement proceedings, search Victorian court databases, tribunal decisions and published judgments where the Act and its infringement mechanisms are litigated. Also check administrative decisions involving infringement notices issued under the Act, as those proceedings are where the Schedule’s operation is most likely to have been litigated.

Potential litigation issues that could arise (consistent with the text but not asserting past litigation)

• Validity challenges. As a piece of subordinate legislation made under s 232 of the Act, potential legal challenges could include arguments that the Regulations exceed the power conferred by the Act, that a prescribed penalty is not within the delegated power, or that procedural requirements for making subordinate legislation were not met. None of these issues are discussed in the instrument itself.

• Interpretation disputes. Because the Schedule references specific provisions of the ACL (Victoria) and of the Act, disputes might arise about whether particular facts fall within the wording of a referenced section and therefore whether an infringement notice applies. Such interpretive disputes would be resolved either through internal administrative review under the Act or through court proceedings.

• Penalty unit conversion issues. For the items expressed in penalty units, litigation or administrative challenge could arise about the correct conversion to dollars in a particular financial year (for example, if the Treasurer’s published value is updated or if rounding rules apply). Again, the instrument sets out the linkage but not any litigation history.

The Regulations are compact but contain several practical traps for advisers, compliance officers and enforcement practitioners. The following items are concrete, source‑grounded risks and interpretive pitfalls to watch for.

1. Two different statutory sources referenced in the Schedule. Most Schedule items reference provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (Victoria) (for example items 1-102 and 103-102 inclusive generally reference s 151-206 of the ACL (Victoria)). However, items 103-108 reference provisions of the Act (sections 106E-106J of the Act). That means offenders and advisers must check two different substantive sources (the ACL (Victoria) and the Act itself) when mapping activity to a Schedule item. Do not assume all items in Schedule 1 are drawn from the same statutory code (Schedule 1; items 103-108).

2. Mixed expression of penalties: fixed dollars and penalty units. Most items are fixed dollar amounts specified in Schedule 1. A cluster (items 103-108) are expressed in penalty units (3 units for a natural person, 15 units for a body corporate). The explanatory details require conversion using the Monetary Units Act 2004 and state the penalty‑unit value for 2025-26 is $203.51 (Explanatory details). Failure to convert penalty units correctly can lead to under/overstated financial exposure. Remember also that the Treasurer’s published value changes annually and must be sourced in the Government Gazette.

3. Rounding rule. The explanatory details state the calculated penalty unit amount “may be rounded to the nearest dollar.” That introduces a small numerical ambiguity in conversion that must be consistently applied: round to the nearest dollar after multiplying the penalty units by the current penalty‑unit value (Explanatory details).

4. Differential corporate multipliers. Bodies corporate face substantially higher penalties than natural persons. The spread is not uniform: fixed‑dollar pairs such as $750/$5,000 give a roughly 6.67 multiplier, while penalty‑unit pairs are 3 units vs 15 units (a fivefold corporate multiplier). Do not assume a consistent multiplicative factor across the Schedule , check each item.

5. Sunset date. The Regulations will sunset on 10 July 2028 (Endnotes). That creates timing risk for any ongoing compliance or enforcement strategy: if the instrument lapses, the prescribed infringement penalty regime in its current form will cease to operate unless it is remade. Do not rely on this instrument for long‑term planning without checking whether it has been remade or extended.

The Regulations impose a compliance landscape built from two linked obligations: (a) avoid committing the substantive contraventions listed in Schedule 1 (the underlying ACL or Act provisions), and (b) if an infringement notice is issued, ensure correct handling of the prescribed monetary amount and any procedural steps under the Act. The following is a practical compliance checklist and operational guidance grounded in the instrument’s text.

1. Map your business activities to Schedule 1. Systematically cross‑reference your operations against the ACL (Victoria) sections listed in Schedule 1 and the Act sections listed for items 103-108. The Regulations make clear which statutory offences have been prescribed as infringement offences (regulation 5(1); Schedule 1). Prepare a register listing the Schedule item, the referenced statutory provision, the corresponding prescribed amount and whether the conduct in your operations could fall within the provision.

2. Update risk registers and compliance thresholds to reflect prescribed amounts. The Schedule specifies precise dollar amounts by offender type. Incorporate those amounts into your risk quantification models. For penalty‑unit items, note the need to translate units into dollars each financial year using the Treasurer’s published penalty‑unit value (Explanatory details).

3. Monitor penalty‑unit values and rounding rules. For items 103-108, calculate the dollar equivalent by multiplying the number of penalty units by the current penalty‑unit value published by the Treasurer under the Monetary Units Act 2004. Apply rounding to the nearest dollar as directed in the explanatory details. Maintain a simple process to update these figures at or before 1 June each year when the Treasurer’s figure should be published.

4. Distinguish responses for individuals and corporates. The Schedule provides separate amounts for natural persons and bodies corporate. Ensure your internal compliance and delegation frameworks take into account that a corporate entity will face higher financial exposure. Consider whether insurance, indemnities, or contractual allocations of regulatory risk are necessary.

5. Train staff and compliance officers on the infringement notice mechanism. The Regulations set monetary amounts, but the Act governs procedure. Ensure the people who will interact with enforcement authorities understand the possible outcomes: receiving an infringement notice for a prescribed offence and the steps in the Act for paying, contesting or seeking review. The instrument itself does not describe these steps; consult the Act for procedural detail.