The Albanese Government will extend a crackdown on Unfair Trading Practices to small businesses, to ensure they are fairly protected when dealing with large businesses.
The Government said that during its consultation on protecting consumers from unfair trading practices it heard that it was important to extend protections small businesses, who face power imbalances when dealing with larger businesses.
The extension will address the shortfall in small business protections, after hearing that thousands of businesses, including those in retail and agriculture, have experienced unfair practices that caused substantial harm.
Minister for Small Business, Julie Collins MP, said: “This action is a matter of fairness.
“Small businesses are vital to our economy, and we’re concerned about the disadvantages they face when dealing with unfair practices from larger players that might not breach existing laws but still cause harm.
“We’ve heard from various sectors including farmers, subcontractors, and small online retailers about challenging practices they’ve encountered. That’s why we’re moving forward with plans to extend these important protections.
“This builds on the extensive work our Government has already taken to level the playing the field for Australia’s record 2.6 million small businesses.”
Treasury will consult this year on the design of protections for businesses, including on whether a principles‑based prohibition should apply and whether specific unfair trading practices should be targeted to protect small businesses.
This will complement a statutory review of the amendments to strengthen unfair contract term protections that the Albanese Labor Government legislated in 2022.
The consultation will consider how Unfair Trading Practice protections can be used to address practices that harm small businesses.
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Leigh, said: “Competition should be about better products and prices, not who can push around the little guy the hardest. Too often, small businesses – including farmers and suppliers – get strong‑armed by bigger players who rewrite the rules to suit themselves.
“That’s why we’re cracking down on unfair trading practices. A supermarket shouldn’t be able to drop a supplier just for asking for a fair price. A dominant firm shouldn’t get to ‘negotiate’ by holding all the cards and stacking the deck.
“When competition turns into coercion, it’s not competition at all.”
