The Sharing Economy: A guide for private traders

This guidance is designed to help private traders understand their rights and obligations in the sharing economy.

This guide is intended to reflect the consumer law at a point in time and does not reflect changes to the Competition and Consumer Act and Australian Consumer Law (ACL) which have occurred since initial publication. These changes include:

• clarification that multiple minor failures with a good or service will constitute a major failure to comply with a consumer guarantee
• changes to the definition of 'consumer'. For goods and services supplied from 1 July 2021, the threshold amount has increased from $40,000 to $100,000
• amendments to the prohibition on third line forcing, which will now only break the law when it has the effect of substantially lessening competition in the relevant market.

Note: This guide is not legal advice or a definitive list of situations where the ACL applies.