Every year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) identifies key areas to minimise and raise awareness of the risks posed by unsafe consumer goods.

The ACCC recently announced their 2024-25 Product Safety Priorities.

  1. Young children’s product safety

Consumer product safety issues for young children, with a focus on the safety of nursery products including furniture, baby bottle self-feeding devices and infant sleep products.

  • monitoring emerging trends to identify and address issues that have the potential to cause significant consumer harm in relation to young children’s nursery products and taking regulatory and enforcement action where appropriate
  • enhancing social media presence and refreshing website content to quickly and effectively reach relevant audiences
  • raising awareness and encouraging compliance with the new standard for toppling furniture and proposed standards for infant sleep products.

 

2. Product safety online

Strengthening product safety online including through compliance monitoring, encouraging best practices by online platforms and raising awareness to reduce safety risks from goods sold online, including second hand goods.

  • collaborating with domestic and international regulators to identify and address common risks and convey shared expectations for action to address product safety online
  • targeted monitoring activities to inform discussions with online marketplaces and raise consumer awareness of key issues and risks associated with buying online

 

3. Sustainability and maintaining product safety

Supporting Australia’s transition to a sustainable economy including through education and awareness raising of safety in sustainable products.

  • ensuring the ACCC does not perform its product safety functions in a way that creates unnecessary barriers to industry or government pursuing environmental sustainability objectives
  • supporting consumer confidence in the safety of products needed to underpin Australia’s transition to a net zero and circular economy
  • raising awareness of the product safety issues involved in reused or second-hand goods online through the publication of guidance for buyers, sellers and listing platforms. Guidance will be supported by awareness raising on social media channels.

 

4. Emerging technology and product safety

Exploring product safety risks associated with the use of emerging technology in consumer products.

  • collaborating with domestic and international regulators
  • providing input into key cross government forums on potential product safety risks of emerging technology
  • reviewing the product safety legislative framework to assess how it applies to safety hazards from emerging technologies.

 

5. Improving product safety data

Improving product safety data to enhance our ability to identify emerging product safety issues quickly and effectively.

  • continuing to work in partnership with Australian data experts
  • updating the mandatory reporting guidelines to assist suppliers to better understand their compliance obligations
  • improve internal systems and reporting to support efficient, data driven decision making.

 

Need help?

National Retail Association is proud to have been appointed for another 2-year term on the ACCC Product Safety Consultative Committee. We represent industry and provide feedback on ways to improve the ACCC’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving product safety objectives, consult on significant product safety project and alert the ACCC to new and emerging product safety concerns.

 

For assistance on managing product safety concerns within your business, or to provide feedback, please reach out to the National Retail Policy Team (policy@nationalretail.org.au).