Product safety priorities

How we will implement the priorities

This section outlines some of the important work that we will carry out this year to implement each product safety priority.

	Young children’s product safety The ACCC will focus on high-risk product safety issues in nursery products for young children by: monitoring emerging trends to identify and address issues that have the potential to cause significant consumer harm in relation to young children’s nursery products and taking regulatory and enforcement action where appropriate enhancing our social media presence and refreshing our website content to quickly and effectively reach relevant audiences raising awareness and encouraging compliance with the new standard for toppling furniture and proposed standards for infant sleep products.
	Product safety online The ACCC will continue to strengthen product safety online through: collaborating with domestic and international regulators to identify and address common risks and convey shared expectations for action to address product safety online targeted monitoring activities to inform discussions with online marketplaces and raise consumer awareness of key issues and risks associated with buying online refining elements of the Product Safety Pledge to improve product safety outcomes for consumers.
	Sustainability and maintaining product safety The ACCC will support the transition by households to a more sustainable economy by: ensuring the ACCC does not perform its product safety functions in a way that creates unnecessary barriers to industry or government pursuing environmental sustainability objectives supporting consumer confidence in the safety of products needed to underpin Australia’s transition to a net zero and circular economy raising awareness of the product safety issues involved in reused or second-hand goods online through the publication of guidance for buyers, sellers and listing platforms. Guidance will be supported by awareness raising on social media channels.
	Emerging technology and product safety The ACCC will explore the product safety risks associated with the use of emerging technology by: collaborating with domestic and international regulators providing input into key cross government forums on potential product safety risks of emerging technology reviewing the product safety legislative framework to assess how it applies to safety hazards from emerging technologies.
	Improving product safety data The ACCC will improve product safety data to enhance our ability to identify emerging product safety issues by: continuing to work in partnership with Australian data experts updating the mandatory reporting guidelines to assist suppliers to better understand their compliance obligations improve internal systems and reporting to support efficient, data driven decision making.

While we have identified priorities for 2024-25, the ACCC may also pursue other product safety risks which arise during the year and can cause serious harm to consumers.

Key outcomes

We have achieved a number of significant outcomes in support of our previous product safety priorities.

• The recall of LG solar storage batteries
• Published the ACCC’s lithium-ion batteries and consumer product safety report
• Launched a lithium-ion battery consumer education and awareness campaign
• Introduced the world’s first mandatory button battery safety standards, and a national surveillance program in partnership with state and territory consumer protection agencies
• Achieved several enforcement outcomes in response to alleged non-compliance with button battery standards. 
• Introduced the Product safety pledge, a voluntary initiative to strengthen product safety measures for online businesses.  
• Increased consumer awareness about infant sleep safety following a safe sleep campaign.

See also

How we identify and prioritise product safety risks

Product Safety Australia website

Compliance and enforcement priorities and policy

Australian Consumer Law regulators, Australian Consumer Law: Compliance and Enforcement: How Regulators Enforce the Australian Consumer Law (2017)