What it does
The Fair Trading Act 2010 (WA) (the Act) serves as the principal statute governing consumer protection and fair trading practices within Western Australia. Its core function, set out in s 3, is to improve consumer well-being through empowerment and protection, foster effective competition, and enable confident market participation by both consumers and suppliers trading fairly. This is achieved primarily by applying the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) as a law of Western Australia with jurisdiction-specific modifications.
Section 16 declares that the object of Part 3 is to apply (with modifications) the Australian Consumer Law set out in Schedule 2 to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) as a law of Western Australia. Section 18 defines the “Australian Consumer Law text” as that Schedule together with regulations made under s 139G of the Commonwealth Act. Section 19 then applies that text as the Australian Consumer Law (WA) (ACL (WA)), which forms part of the Act in so far as it constitutes the Schedule and subsidiary legislation in so far as it constitutes the regulations (s 19(2)). The application is dynamic: amendments to the Commonwealth text are incorporated only after they pass through a Western Australian tabling, disallowance and proclamation process (ss 19A–19E, inserted by the Fair Trading Amendment Act 2022). This mechanism ensures parliamentary oversight of changes that would otherwise apply automatically.
Beyond the ACL (WA), the Act establishes a framework for codes of practice. Part 4 allows the Commissioner to prepare draft codes after consultation (s 44) and for regulations to prescribe them (s 45). These codes govern fair dealing between classes of suppliers and consumers or in relation to particular goods or services (s 43). Interim codes may be prescribed without full consultation (s 46). Contraventions of prescribed codes can be addressed by orders of the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) on application by the Commissioner (s 47), including orders to cease the contravention and rectify consequences.