Independent Review – Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
On 21 December 2020, the Assistant Treasurer, the Hon Michael Sukkar, announced a package of safety and information standards to address the hazards of button/coin batteries. The package includes two related regulatory controls covering two classes of ‘consumer goods of a kind’ – consumer goods that contain button/coin batteries, and button/coin batteries themselves. The controls include safety standards that will have physical requirements for the goods and information standards under sections 104 and 134 of the Australian Consumer Law.
Consistent with the Government’s Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) requirements, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has certified the report titled Button Battery Safety – Final recommendation as meeting the requirements of a RIS.
The Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) does not assess the quality of independent reviews and RIS-like documents used in lieu of a RIS, but does assess whether the options analysed in the independent review are relevant to the regulatory proposal. The OBPR assessed that the options analysed in the independent review are sufficiently relevant to the regulatory proposal.
The ACCC estimates the average annual regulatory burden on businesses to be $2.55 million and that a regulatory offset has not been identified.
Further information is available at Button battery safety investigation | Product Safety Australia
Please note: any accessibility queries should be directed to the ACCC.