Bant, E; Paterson, J
(Florida International University, 2020)
In Australia, the revolutionary Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) introduced, in section 52, a simple and powerful prohibition on conduct in trade or commerce that is “misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive.” The prohibition applies to business-to-business transactions as well as to those involving consumers and contains no requirement of fault on the part of the contravenor. Its purposes are explicitly instrumental: to protect
consumers and promote fair business practices. The Act also introduced a veritable ‘smorgasbord’ of remedies for victims of misleading conduct that were equally revolutionary, granting to courts a wide-ranging remedial
discretion to award relief that includes, for example, the power to vary
contracts retroactively.