Overview
As part of a state-wide inspection program, we inspect Victorian businesses to check that they are complying with the legislation we administer. Each year, we inspect a wide range of businesses to:
- check they are complying with our laws
- protect consumers by removing unsafe products from sale
- investigate breaches of our laws.
Our inspectors are appointed in accordance with section 142 of the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012, with powers stipulated in parts 6.4 of the Act.
Our inspectors may:
- arrange a time to meet with businesses to discuss compliance obligations
- visit a business without prior notification to conduct an inspection
- enter and search business premises
- require businesses to produce documents and information
- inspect documents
- make copies or take extracts of documents
- seize documents or goods.
There are penalties if you do not comply with these requirements, or provide false or misleading information to an inspector.
How businesses are selected
We select businesses for inspection:
- randomly
- based on a risk assessment
- in response to intelligence and complaints from the public.
Our inspection program focuses on industries where failing to comply with the law can result in consumer harm. Our inspection priorities include:
- conveyancers
- domestic builders (contractual requirements)
- estate agents (trust accounts, property sales and underquoting, property and office management)
- funeral providers
- motor car traders
- pawnbrokers
- residential parks
- retailers
- retirement villages
- suppliers of products (to ensure they are not supplying products subject to bans or mandatory safety standards)
- rooming houses (ensuring they meet minimum standards and licensing requirements)
- sex work service providers.
Your rights
Businesses we inspect have a right to:
What happens after an inspection?
If our inspectors find a business has not complied with our laws, we have a range of enforcement options to address non-compliance under the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act 2012 (ACLFTA), the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and other consumer Acts.
These options range from warning letters and infringement notices to court action for the most serious matters, and can be used in combination. The range of options at our disposal, and how we use them, ensures that we have the flexibility to respond in a way that is both targeted and proportionate to the seriousness of the problem.
For more information, view our Regulatory approach and compliance policy section.
For resources to help your business meet its obligations, view our Licensing and registration section.