Unfair Trading Practices Protections for Small Businesses
Submission Date: 21 July 2026
The Competition and Consumer Committee (C&C Committee) and the Small and Medium Enterprise Committee (SME Committee) of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia welcome the opportunity to respond to Treasury’s June 2026 Consultation Paper titled Unfair trading practices—protections for small businesses (Consultation Paper).1
The Law Council understands that the Consultation Paper builds on earlier consultation processes concerning unfair trading practices and seeks feedback on the design, targeting and implementation of additional protections for small businesses and franchisees. In particular, the Consultation Paper seeks views on:
- whether the principles-based general prohibition proposed in the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026 should be extended, with or without modification, to protect small businesses and franchisees where they acquire goods or services as consumers; and
- whether existing laws and regulations provide adequate protection against unfair trading practices that small businesses and franchisees may experience in business-to-business dealings, whether as purchasers or suppliers.
The Law Council acknowledges the Government’s objective of ensuring that small businesses are appropriately protected from harmful trading practices, particularly in circumstances involving information asymmetries, resource constraints, or imbalances in bargaining power. The Law Council also recognises that some small businesses—particularly sole traders and franchisees—may, in certain transactional contexts, experience vulnerabilities similar to those experienced by individual consumers when acquiring goods or services as a consumer from larger suppliers.
The Law Council received feedback from different Committees to inform this submission. Where one particular Committee expressed a view on a particular topic that view is attributed to that Committee in this submission.
1 Treasury, Unfair trading practices protections for small businesses (Consultation Paper, June 2026), pp 3–4, 8–11 (‘Consultation Paper’); Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026, proposed s 28B.
Last Updated on 06/08/2026
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