139CConduct of employees or agents of persons other than bodies corporate

139C Conduct of employees or agents of persons other than bodies corporate

(1) If, in a proceeding under this Part or the Australian Consumer Law in respect of conduct that is engaged in by a person (the principal) other than a body corporate and to which this Part or the Australian Consumer Law applies, it is necessary to establish the state of mind of the principal, it is sufficient to show:

(a) that an employee or agent of the principal engaged in that conduct within the scope of the actual or apparent authority of the employee or agent; and

(b) the employee or agent had that state of mind.

(2) Any conduct engaged in on behalf of a person (the principal) other than a body corporate:

(a) by an employee or agent of the principal within the scope of the actual or apparent authority of the employee or agent; or

(b) by any other person:

(i) at the direction of an employee or agent of the principal; or

(ii) with the consent or agreement (whether express or implied) of such an employee or agent;

if the giving of the direction, consent or agreement is within the scope of the actual or apparent authority of the employee or agent;

is taken, for the purposes of this Part or the Australian Consumer Law, to have been engaged in also by the principal.

(3) If:

(a) a person other than a body corporate is convicted of an offence; and

(b) subsection (1) or (2) applied in relation to the conviction on the basis that the person was the principal mentioned in that subsection; and

(c) the person would not have been convicted of the offence if that subsection had not been enacted;

the person is not liable to be punished by imprisonment for that offence.