Retail Law

Australian consumer law is complex and the penalties and reputational damage of non-compliance with consumer protection laws can be harsh. We streamline the process of compliance by offering a range of retail and consumer law regulatory services. In addition to consumer protection legislation, we can provide advice relating to competition law and product safety.

We can provide compliance training to your team members to ensure that they are aware of their consumer law obligations and to protect you from liability.

We can help with:

  • Shopping/sales and POS terms and conditions
  • Extended or additional warranty terms and conditions
  • Returns, shipping and delivery policies
  • Gift card, credit note, lay-by policies
  • Coupon/discount and loyalty terms
  • Ethical or responsible sourcing policies
  • Misleading or deceptive conduct advice
  • Influencer, sponsorship and publicity agreements
  • Marketing, advertising and product packaging sign-off and guidelines
  • Competition law advice
  • Misleading representations advice

Consumer Law

The Australian Consumer Law provides a national law covering unfair contract terms, consumer rights when buying goods and services, product safety, lay-by agreements, and enforcement and consumer redress options. If you are a business that provides goods or services to consumers, you need to know and understand your rights under this law. Cogent Legal can help you understand your responsibilities to the consumers and help you structure your business to comply with your obligations.

We can help you with:

  • Sales terms and conditions
  • Warranty terms and conditions
  • Retail policies like returns, shipping, lay-by
  • Misleading or deceptive conduct 
  • Sponsorship and publicity agreements
  • Advertising guidelines
  • Competition law advice
  • Competition and Trade Promotions

Privacy and Data Protection

Any business that collects personal information should have a Privacy Policy. Although a Privacy Policy is only mandated for companies with a turnover greater than $3 million or those that collect ‘sensitive information’, it’s a great idea for any company as it engenders customer trust in the business and makes sure that you have structures and procedures in place to comply with your obligations. Your clients will thank you for being open and transparent about what you do with their data and how you are taking steps to ensure its protection.

At Cogent Legal, we can help you consider your privacy obligations and draft a Privacy Policy and Procedure so you can take speedy action to secure your data and notify customers in the event of a data breach.

We can help you with:

  • Privacy Policy
  • Data breach notification policies
  • Privacy law compliance 
  • Information regarding the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) including the appointment of a European agent