Office of Fair Trading (Qld) 

Act: Fair Trading Act 1989 (Qld).¹

Established: The Act creates the statutory office of commissioner for fair trading (s 8). The Office of Fair Trading, within the Department of Justice, is the administrative body that supports that office and is the name Queenslanders encounter in practice.

Purpose: The commissioner administers the Act, promotes the interests of consumers, collects and disseminates information about matters affecting consumers, and receives and considers complaints. The Act also applies the Australian Consumer Law as a law of Queensland.

Where the authority sits

Section 8 provides that there is to be a commissioner for fair trading, and that the chief executive is that commissioner without further appointment unless the chief executive appoints someone else to the office. Section 9 provides for the inspectors and other officers necessary to assist the commissioner.

That structure matters for a student identifying the right respondent: the statutory functions and powers attach to the commissioner, an office created by the Act, rather than to the Office of Fair Trading as such.

Powers conferred under the Act

The commissioner's statutory functions are to administer the Act, to promote consumer interests and consumer awareness, to collect, examine and disseminate information about matters affecting consumers, and to receive and consider complaints.

Enforcement runs through inspectors. Under s 90 an inspector may require a person, by oral or written requisition, to furnish information or records in their possession relevant to the operation or enforcement of the Act — with possession extending to information the person is entitled to access and records they are entitled to obtain.

How the Australian Consumer Law applies here

Section 16 applies the Australian Consumer Law text, as in force from time to time, as a law of Queensland. As so applying it may be referred to as the Australian Consumer Law (Queensland) and forms part of the Act. So the substantive consumer guarantees a student reasons about are national in content but State in their application, and the enforcing regulator is the State one.

Is it a prosecuting authority?

The Act contemplates prosecution rather than leaving enforcement wholly to civil remedies. Proceedings for an offence carrying less than the higher level penalty amount are taken summarily under the Justices Act 1886 (Qld). Where the maximum penalty is the higher level penalty amount or more, the proceeding may be taken summarily or on indictment, at the election of the prosecution — and where the prosecution elects to proceed summarily, the maximum penalty is halved.

Self-check

• Have I cited the commissioner for fair trading as the statutory office, rather than treating the Office of Fair Trading as the body the Act creates?
• Have I checked whether the consumer guarantee I am relying on comes from the Australian Consumer Law as applied by s 16, rather than from a Queensland-specific provision?
• Have I identified whether the offence in question is one the prosecution may elect to take on indictment?