Rising Consumer Guarantee Contacts Spark Electronics Concerns

Date

24 April 2026

Topics

Buying and selling products and services Reports to the ACCC about consumer guarantees rose by 20 per cent to over 38,000 in 2025, compared to the previous year.

The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) provides consumers with automatic rights when they purchase a product or service. These are called “consumer guarantees”. The exercise of these rights continues to be more difficult than it should be, especially for people who have contacted the ACCC about issues with whitegoods and electronics, the ACCC’s 2025 reports data shows.

About 70 per cent of people who contacted the ACCC in 2025 about an electronic product or whitegood raised issues relating to consumer guarantees. The electronics and whitegoods sector was also the sector for which the ACCC received the most reports in 2025.

Improving industry compliance with consumer guarantees, with a focus on consumer electronics, is an ACCC 2025/26 Compliance and Enforcement Priority.

“We are reminding consumer electronics and whitegoods retailers they must comply with their consumer guarantee obligations. We also encourage businesses in these sectors to review their policies and practices to ensure they are compliant with the Australian Consumer Law,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.

“Consumers rely on products like TVs, fridges, mobile phones and washing machines every day, and when something goes wrong it can be a major disruption. Despite having these basic consumer rights, reports to us show some businesses are not honouring consumers’ rights to a refund, repair or replacement.”

Compliance with consumer guarantees has been a priority for the ACCC for several years and will continue to be a priority for 2026/27.

“We are very pleased the government has announced plans to reform the consumer guarantee provisions of the Australian Consumer Law, which will create stronger incentives for businesses to provide the remedies that consumers are already entitled to,” Ms Lowe said.

“The new laws will also make it easier for the ACCC and state and territory consumer protection agencies to take enforcement and compliance action where rights aren’t honoured.”

The proposal, supported by the ACCC, will introduce penalties for businesses which fail to comply with their obligations to provide remedies to consumers. It will also introduce penalties for manufacturers that fail to reimburse suppliers for remedies they provide to consumers, when the manufacturer is responsible for the consumer guarantees issue with a product.

Examples of issues reported to the ACCC

The reports to the ACCC included the following examples:

• A consumer was asked to pay for the repair of a high-end fridge because a component failed after the two-year warranty period.
• A consumer could not get a replacement TV after discovering a new TV screen was broken upon delivery.
• A consumer was charged for repairs to a three-month old smartphone that randomly restarted during normal use and had issues with the camera. In 2025, the ACCC received over 3,000 reports about businesses who were telling consumers that they were not entitled to a remedy when products potentially failed to comply with the consumer guarantees, or that consumers had to deal with the manufacturer, which is not the case.

“It is illegal for businesses to rely on store policies or terms and conditions which deny these rights. For example, policies that say ‘no refunds’ or ‘no refunds or exchanges on sale items’ are likely to be misleading as consumer guarantee rights continue to apply in relation to major and minor faults,” Ms Lowe said.

“Businesses risk breaching the Australian Consumer Law if they mislead consumers about their right to a remedy. No matter what the business does or says, they cannot take away your consumer guarantee rights.”.

Consumers can find further information about their rights and how to enforce them on the ACCC website.

Consumer rights under the Australian Consumer Law – refund, repair or replacement

Under the ACL, products and services supplied to consumers automatically come with basic rights called consumer guarantees. These include that products must be of acceptable quality, match any description provided, and be fit for a particular purpose.

If a business fails to meet one of the consumer guarantees, a consumer is entitled to a remedy. This may be a refund, repair, or replacement, depending on the circumstances.

In some situations, a business may be classified as a consumer too under the ACL consumer guarantees. See our website for more detail.

These consumer rights apply separately from any warranty provided by the supplier or manufacturer, and can last for a longer time than the manufacturer’s warranty.

Some businesses offer “extended” warranties for an additional cost, but consumers should ask businesses to explain what, if any, additional benefits these provide.

Businesses may need to provide a remedy under the consumer guarantees even if the warranty has already expired. They should not mislead consumers about their automatic rights under the consumer guarantees, or the need to acquire any additional warranties.

Tips for consumers

Consumers can assert their rights under the consumer guarantees in the ACL and should not only rely on the manufacturer’s warranty or the retailer’s return policy when they have a problem with their electronics or whitegoods products. Consumer guarantees can provide more extensive remedies and for longer.

Consumers should be cautious about purchasing extended warranties, which may not offer any additional benefits to what is already automatically provided under the ACL. Before purchasing an extended warranty, consumers should:

• ask the business to explain what the extended warranty provides over and above the consumer’s automatic rights,
• read the terms and conditions of the extended warranty to understand what is excluded and if it offers any additional benefits, and
• consider whether the purchase is value for money. If consumers can’t resolve their consumer guarantees issue directly with a business, they can contact their local state or territory consumer protection agency which may be able to directly assist consumers in resolving their dispute. They can also submit a complaint to the ACCC which will help the ACCC identify trends and inform our compliance and enforcement work.

The ACCC has important information and helpful tools such as letter templates on its website for both consumers and businesses about consumer guarantee rights and obligations.

Background

In December 2025, the Government published a decision regulatory impact statement relating to proposed reforms to the consumer guarantee provisions in the ACL.

These include reforms which will make it illegal for:

• businesses to fail to provide a remedy for consumer guarantees failures, when they are legally required to do so under the consumer guarantees, and
• manufacturers to fail to reimburse suppliers for consumer guarantees failures that the manufacturers are responsible for. In June 2025, Reebelo Australia, an online marketplace for new and refurbished electronics, paid $59,400 in penalties after the ACCC issued it with three infringement notices for allegedly making false representations about the effect of consumer guarantee rights in contravention of the ACL.

In April 2025, the ACCC accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from apparel business Hard Rock Enterprises Pty Ltd, in which it admitted to engaging in resale price maintenance and making false or misleading representations to consumers about the amount of time a consumer has to seek a remedy for a faulty product or return an incorrect product.

In February 2025, an ACCC sweep uncovered concerning online shopping return policies and terms and conditions. The sweep found numerous examples of practices that could potentially mislead or deceive consumers regarding their rights to exchange, refund or return a product.

Release number

36/26

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