This world-first legislation enhances protections across the economy by setting out consistent and enforceable obligations for businesses in key sectors where scammers operate.

“Importantly, the Framework enables consumers to seek redress from regulated businesses when those businesses have not met their obligations,” Lowe said.

Banks, certain digital platforms, including social media, and telecommunications providers will be the first sectors required to comply with the legislation.

The ACCC is a strong supporter of mandatory industry scams codes and, through the National Anti-Scam Centre, has already begun preparing incrementally for the Framework.

“In reaching this important milestone, we acknowledge that there is considerable work ahead to implement the Framework, including the formal designation of sectors, development of sector codes, consumer and industry guidance,” Lowe said.

The Bill has been subject to much discussion and consultation but it's long been known that the principle of it, that it will be brought into force and it will put the burden of fraud prevention onto businesses and that there has been no indication that that would be reconsidered. 

History of the Bill

The Bill was introduced into the House of Representatives in November 2024 and after a series of debates passed and introduced into the Senate on 11 February 2025. One Amendment was agreed and the Bill was passed on 12th February and the amendment put before the House which agreed it on 13th February. It will now be presented to the Governor General for Assent and it will come into force the day after that Assent which is issued through authority delegated by the Crown. That is a formality and it is upon that Assent that the Bill becomes an Act.

Purpose of the Bill

ACCC might be barrel chested with pride but the fact is that the Act will achieve nothing. The clue is in the title: it's a Framework Bill.  Anyone who doesn't understand the concept only has to look at the fuss over Tranche II in relation to financial crime risk and compliance: everyone has known for years that it's coming but for years it didn't and when it looked like it might, it was all thrown up in the air, changes made and new delays built into the legislation. 

What it is designed to do is to provide a framework in primary law that will be developed in secondary legislation also known as statutory instruments. Or, to put it another way, there will be a new regulatory system. First, as Lowe said, will be to define which businesses it should apply to.

We can be certain that the approach will not be to prevent fraud but instead to interrupt it. ACCC provides facilities for the Scamwatch service, part private sector and part public sector. Its aim is to disrupt frauds, ideally before losses mount. But its powers are advisory and reactive - although it does pass information onto both public and private sectors about things it has noticed. Sadly, it tends to make its public announcements in rather breathless terms talking about new threat and emerging scams (the preferred word for "fraud" in AUS, it seems. 

In the modern style, its draftsmen work overtime to make it chummy and to avoid any hint of traditional legislative drafting. And so, incredibly, it skips the somewhat important point of saying "This Act [set out purposes] instead saying, simply, that there are a series of Schedules listed in Column One that each will come into force on the dates shewn Column Two of a table.

Column One says "The whole of this Act" and Column Two says "The day after this Act receives the Royal Assent. 

It also says "any information in Column 3 of the table is not part of this Act". Lucky that: the column is headed "Date/Details" but is otherwise empty. 

Traditional drafting would simply has said "This Act shall come into Force on the day following                   Royal Assent." 

It would also have told us what to look for but it is only by reading Schedule One that we discover that it has a title: Amendments and that its main amendments (presumably others follow) are to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. 

That Act has several parts, including part IVE. There is a new part: IVF.

What it does not have, at least at the top before we start reading, is a definitions section. So we go in blind: we do not know what a "scam" is. But we do know "The object of this Part is to prevent and respond to scams impacting:".... Let's use the word "affecting" shall we so we know what we are talking about. 

While s58AA is headed "Object of this part" it is actually far more than that: it creates extraterritorial effect (see why we reject "impact"?). 

The Act contains a raft of administrative provisions. We'll look at those in subsequent articles.