Contemporary issue: product certification and safety: HSC Legal Studies

What this dot point is asking

Product certification is one of the four contemporary issues that must be studied in the Consumers option of the Legal Studies Stage 6 Syllabus (2009). You must identify and investigate the issue and evaluate the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses to it. The nature of consumer law section also asks you to evaluate the effectiveness of the regulation of marketing, advertising and product certification in achieving consumer protection, so this page serves both.

"Product certification" means any process that tells a consumer a product meets a standard: mandatory safety standards and approvals, information standards and labels, and voluntary certification marks. The underlying issue is that consumers cannot test a product's safety or verify claims about its origin or ingredients, so they rely on the law and on certifiers. In the 2023 HSC (Question 26(a)), NESA's feedback asked students to state the issues for consumers concerning product certification clearly, and praised references to safety standards and product recalls.

The answer

Identifying the issue

Product certification matters because of information asymmetry: manufacturers know how a product is made and tested; consumers do not. The issues for consumers are:

• Safety. Unsafe products cause injury and death: button batteries swallowed by children, exploding airbags, lithium-ion battery fires, toppling furniture.
• Accuracy of claims. Consumers pay more for goods labelled "Australian made", "organic", "energy efficient" or "sustainable", and cannot check those claims themselves.
• Global and online supply. A growing share of goods is bought online from overseas sellers through marketplaces, where the platform may not be the legal supplier and Australian standards are hard to enforce.
• Reactive regulation. Australian law mostly regulates product by product, after harm has occurred.

Legal responses: the ACL product safety regime

The ACCC administers product safety nationally through its Product Safety Australia website, together with state and territory regulators such as NSW Fair Trading. The ACL (Part 3-3 and Part 3-4) provides these tools:

Supplying goods that do not comply with a mandatory standard or ban is a civil penalty contravention and an offence; since 28 March 2026 the maximum civil penalty for a corporation is the greater of $100 million, three times the benefit, or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover.

Button batteries

Coin-sized lithium batteries can cause catastrophic internal burns within hours if swallowed; the ACCC has reported that three children have died in button battery incidents in Australia. The mandatory safety and information standards that took effect on 22 June 2022 require secure battery compartments, child-resistant packaging, warnings and compliance testing. In the first Federal Court penalty under these standards, Fewstone Pty Ltd, trading as City Beach, was ordered to pay $14 million after selling more than 60 types of non-compliant products, including toys and light-up shoe accessories, on more than 54,000 occasions between June 2022 and October 2024. The Full Federal Court dismissed City Beach's appeal in 2026, rejecting the argument that the penalty was manifestly excessive.

Takata airbags

Defective Takata airbag inflators could rupture and fire metal fragments at vehicle occupants; a Sydney driver was killed in 2017. Because manufacturers' voluntary recalls were too slow, the Minister issued a compulsory recall in 2018, described by the ACCC as the largest vehicle recall in Australian history. It showed the value of compulsory powers, but also that recalls take years and depend on owners responding.

Quad bikes

After many deaths in rollovers, a mandatory safety standard made in 2019 required stability testing and, from October 2021, operator protection devices. Some manufacturers withdrew from the Australian market rather than comply, showing that standards can reshape a market.

Legal responses: NSW certification

• Electrical and gas products. The Gas and Electricity (Consumer Safety) Act 2017 (NSW) requires declared electrical articles to be certified (a certificate of approval) and marked before sale.
• E-bikes and e-scooters. After a rise in lithium-ion battery fires, NSW introduced mandatory safety standards for e-bikes, e-scooters, hoverboards and e-skateboards and their batteries. From 1 February 2025 products sold in NSW must comply with prescribed safety standards; from 1 February 2026 they must be tested by an accredited laboratory, hold a certificate of approval and carry mandatory labelling. Suppliers face fines of up to $825,000. NSW also made a nation-first information standard for these products in February 2025.
• Building products. After the Grenfell Tower fire in London (2017) and cladding fires in Australia, the Building Products (Safety) Act 2017 (NSW) allowed unsafe building products to be banned, and from August 2018 NSW banned aluminium composite panels with a polyethylene core of more than 30 per cent as external cladding on certain buildings.

Legal responses: labelling and information standards

• Food. Food Standards Australia New Zealand develops the Food Standards Code (ingredients, allergens, nutrition information), enforced in NSW under the Food Act 2003 (NSW) by the NSW Food Authority.
• Country of origin. The Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard 2016, mandatory for most food from 1 July 2018, requires labels showing where food was made, grown or packed and a bar chart of Australian ingredients. A false origin claim is also misleading conduct under the ACL (s 29(1)(k)).
• Energy and water. Energy Rating labels under the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Act 2012 (Cth) and water efficiency labels let consumers compare running costs, and minimum standards remove the least efficient products.

Non-legal responses: voluntary certification

• Voluntary marks. The Australian Made logo (licensed by the not-for-profit Australian Made Campaign), organic certification (carried out by private certifiers, and for goods sold within Australia historically voluntary), Standards Australia's standards, and industry marks give consumers information and let businesses compete on quality.
• The Health Star Rating is a voluntary front-of-pack nutrition label introduced in 2014; because it is voluntary, uptake is uneven and manufacturers can omit low ratings.
• CHOICE tests products and exposes unsafe goods. In June 2026 it lodged a formal complaint with the ACCC about unsafe and banned goods being sold at scale through online marketplaces.
• The media reports recalls and injuries, and coverage of button battery deaths and e-bike fires built support for mandatory standards.

The legal backstop. Voluntary certification is only as reliable as the certifier. The ACL controls it indirectly: a false claim that a product is certified, organic or Australian made is a false or misleading representation (ACL s 29), and a product that fails its claims may breach the consumer guarantees.

The gap: no general safety duty and online marketplaces

Unlike the European Union and the United Kingdom, Australia has no general safety provision requiring businesses to supply only safe products. Unless a specific standard or ban applies, the law acts after harm, through recalls, the consumer guarantees and ACL Part 3-5 liability for safety defects (see unjust contracts and negligence).

Online marketplaces widen the gap: goods are often shipped directly from overseas sellers, and the platform may not be the supplier, so the ACL's tools are hard to apply. On 1 September 2026 the ACCC said it supported exploring options for new general safety protections for all consumer goods and called for clear obligations on online marketplaces, noting gaps where sellers are based overseas or the marketplace is not the direct supplier. The Federal Government announced that Treasury will lead work to strengthen the framework, including improved injury reporting, enhanced penalties and mandatory obligations for online marketplaces, and consumer affairs ministers identified a review of the product safety framework as a priority in July 2026. These are reform proposals, not law.

Evaluating the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses

Judgement. Legal and non-legal responses protect consumers to a moderate extent. Where the law sets a mandatory standard and enforces it, as with button batteries, e-bike batteries and cladding, it is effective, and the City Beach penalty shows courts treating breaches seriously. But Australia's approach is reactive: standards follow deaths and injuries, recalls reach only part of the market, and voluntary certification depends on trust. The biggest weakness in 2026 is the lack of a general safety duty and of clear obligations for online marketplaces, which the ACCC, CHOICE and the government have identified as the next area for reform.

In one sentence

Product certification protects consumers where the law sets and enforces mandatory standards, bans and recalls, as the button battery standards and the $14 million City Beach penalty show, but Australia's product-by-product, after-the-event approach, reliance on voluntary marks and lack of a general safety duty leave consumers exposed, especially when they buy from overseas sellers online.

Try this

Q1. Identify TWO forms of product certification. (2 marks)

• What the marker wants. For example a mandatory safety standard (button batteries) and a voluntary mark (Australian Made).

Q2. Explain the role of the ACCC in product safety. (5 marks)

• What the marker wants. Standards, bans, recalls, injury reporting, Product Safety Australia, enforcement (City Beach) and its 2026 call for reform.

Q3. Assess the effectiveness of mandatory safety standards in protecting consumers. (8 marks)

• What the marker wants. How standards work, examples (button batteries, quad bikes, e-bike batteries), enforcement, limits (reactive, online sellers, no general duty) and a judgement.