What the ACCC does

  • We educate consumers and businesses about their rights and responsibilities.
  • We accept reports where people consider a business is doing something they shouldn’t. We use those reports to inform our education, compliance and enforcement work.
  • We can investigate if a business breaks the rules about providing receipts or bills. We may take some form of compliance or enforcement action.

What the ACCC can't do

  • We don’t resolve individual disputes about receipts or bills not being provided.

On this page

Businesses must provide a receipt

Businesses must give consumers a receipt for anything that costs over $75.

For anything under $75, the consumer can ask for a receipt, and the business must provide it within 7 days.

A receipt can be a:

  • GST tax invoice
  • cash register docket
  • hand-written document.

The receipt must include:

  • the business’s name
  • the business’s ABN or ACN
  • the product or service
  • the date the product or service was supplied
  • the price of the product or service.

Businesses must give an itemised bill for services if asked

Consumers can request an itemised bill or account for a service. If a consumer asks for this, the business must provide it within 7 days. Consumers have up to 30 days after receiving the original bill to ask for an itemised version.

An itemised bill must show:

  • how the price was worked out
  • the number of labour hours and hourly rate, if relevant
  • materials used and the amount charged for them, if relevant.

Businesses can ask for proof of purchase before repairing, replacing or refunding

If a consumer requests a repair, replacement or refund, the business can ask for a receipt or another form of proof of purchase.

Other forms of proof of purchase include a:

  • credit or debit card statement
  • lay-by agreement
  • receipt number or reference number given over the phone or internet
  • warranty card with details of the manufacturer or supplier, date and amount of purchase
  • serial or production number linked with the purchase on the supplier’s or manufacturer’s database.

The consumer may need to provide more than one of these things.

The law doesn’t give a definition of how much proof is enough – the consumer just needs to reasonably demonstrate that they bought the item.

The consumer can provide original documents, photos or photocopies.

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