Product Compliance - Tracking Changes in Australian Law?

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Craze

Member
29 January 2015
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Who is responsible for checking of any new Australian law that may be introduced to a field of products that do not currently have any selling limitations or restrictions or legislation in place if that product has been in the inventory of many companies for many years?
 

Rod

Lawyer
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27 May 2014
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Every legal entity (person or company) is responsible for following all laws.

The company with the inventory is responsible for ensuring it complies with the law. Someone in the company needs to read and understand the law as there can be exemptions/exceptions that may apply in particular circumstances or a time limit in which to comply after the law is introduced.
 

Craze

Member
29 January 2015
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0
1
Is there no overall guidelines? The range of products are currently not referenced in any legislation, it costs me money to have a professional check it out properly and i dont know how to accurately check every state's laws myself making this a hard task to complete. Does what your saying mean i should be paying someone to check on a weekly or monthly basis?
 

Rod

Lawyer
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27 May 2014
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You sound like a new and/or small business owner without the resources behind you that a large company can employ.

Is there no overall guidelines?

No.

Does what your saying mean i should be paying someone to check on a weekly or monthly basis?

I'm not saying anything like that. There are new laws coming out each year and you need to know about laws that are likely to affect you. Sounds like you need a business mentor to advise you on how to manage legal/compliance issues. It is not as bad as it sounds unless you are operating in a high risk area like chemicals/medicine/etc.

There are many ways to find out what laws are likely to impact you, ranging from googling to trade/prof magazines to government websites like Fair trading/ASIC, up to paying for legal advice/retainer. You need to work out what is best for you.
 

Craze

Member
29 January 2015
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0
1
You sound like a new and/or small business owner without the resources behind you that a large company can employ.
We have been operating for years and this matter is very out of the ordinary.

I'm not saying anything like that. There are new laws coming out each year and you need to know about laws that are likely to affect you. Sounds like you need a business mentor to advise you on how to manage legal/compliance issues. It is not as bad as it sounds unless you are operating in a high risk area like chemicals/medicine/etc.
It is easy to manage legal/compliance guidelines once we know what they are (at the moment there is none at all) the problem i'm having is knowing where i stand in the way of how often i should be checking for IF legislation is introduced and if there is an easier / cheaper way to go about doing it. (i know i can look for new laws myself but i can't take the risk of not seeing something i should have)

The problem is that we have been selling a product for at least 3 years now and other companies have been doing so for longer. It seems kids have now caught on to some less legitimate uses for the products and we have received a lot of attention because of this, there have been some calls in the media to have legislation made about the regulations surrounding the sale of these products but as no one is going to write our company a letter letting us know that for example we now must check for permits/identification when selling the product what safeguard do i have?

There are many ways to find out what laws are likely to impact you, ranging from googling to trade/prof magazines to government websites like Fair trading/ASIC, up to paying for legal advice/retainer. You need to work out what is best for you.
When first adding the products to our inventory we paid a legal professional to check everything was ok - AND IT STILL IS TO THIS DAY
The problem is there could be new legislation introduced at any time and i dont know how i am expected to stay up to date with this, the first legal professional i paid to look at it said technically it is up to me to check daily and although i can fight it they could prosecute us the same day the new legislation is introduced
 

Craze

Member
29 January 2015
4
0
1
P.S you've pretty much answered my question im just hoping someone could share some new information.

I am now of the belief that as there are no guidelines to how often we should be checking this kind of thing that if legislation is introduced and we face legal proceedings as a result it will be up to us to prove that we have taken an active role in trying to avoid such case.
 

DennisD

Well-Known Member
11 July 2014
179
58
589
Burdensome as it is, you need to stay across legal developments relevant to your business; if as you say there have been public calls for legislative change in order to catch certain products which you sell then it is more likely that any major new legislation in that particular space will show up in the media, but not necessarily.
 
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John R

Well-Known Member
14 April 2014
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Sydney
I agree with @Hugh. You may also consider whether there are industry groups that your business can join to keep better informed about changes in the law that may affect your business. For example, a retailer may join the Australian Retailers Association, lawyers join their state/territory Law Society, etc.
 
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