The Albanese Government is launching a nationwide crackdown on unfair trading practices including hidden transaction fees and subscription traps, releasing draft legislation today that would ban these practices across the economy.
Too many Australians have clicked "buy" only to discover extra charges at the final screen, or found themselves locked into subscriptions that are far easier to start than to stop. These practices chip away at household budgets and undermine trust in the marketplace. With cost‑of‑living pressures front of mind, the Government is acting to ensure the price consumers see is the price they pay.
The draft laws would outlaw harmful business conduct that unreasonably manipulates or distorts consumer decision‑making, in addition to targeting subscription traps and hidden transaction fees.
Under the proposed reforms, businesses offering subscriptions in Australia would need to disclose key information before sign‑up, notify customers at critical points during a subscription, and provide a clear, straightforward way to cancel. Transaction fees would also have to be prominently disclosed, so consumers are not ambushed by unexpected costs at checkout.
The reforms would equip Australian Consumer Law regulators with a powerful new tool to protect consumers making purchasing decisions, whether in‑store or online.
The proposed ban has strong backing from state and territory governments, and the Commonwealth thanks Consumer Ministers and officials for their continued collaboration in progressing the reform.
Stronger competition is essential to easing cost‑of‑living pressures. This work forms part of the Government's broader agenda to deliver fairer outcomes for consumers, including:
- Strengthening consumer protections through new prohibitions and penalties that reinforce consumer guarantees, improve supplier accountability, and continue rolling out the Scams Prevention Framework.
- Improving product safety by addressing risks linked to unsafe products such as lithium‑ion batteries and e‑micro‑mobility devices (including e‑scooters and e‑bikes), while identifying opportunities to strengthen Australia's product safety framework.
- Boosting fairness and competition, particularly in the supermarket sector, by improving unit pricing, tackling shrinkflation, increasing funding for ACCC investigation and enforcement activity, and cracking down on supermarket price gouging.
- Empowering consumers, small businesses and workers through expanding right‑to‑repair reform, banning non‑compete clauses for workers under the high‑income threshold, and shortly commencing consultation on expansion of unfair trading practice protections to small businesses and franchisees.
Submissions can be made online via the Treasury Consultation Hub until 23 February 2026.
