4517 - S - Buy Now Pay Later regulatory reforms - final approved

The following Committees of the Law Council have provided input into this submission: (a) the Financial Services Committee of the Business Law Section (FS Committee); and (b) the Australian Consumer Law Committee of the Legal Practice Section (ACL Committee). [...] On this basis, the Law Council submits that: (a) in the absence of exceptional circumstances, the LCCC definition should only be altered by Parliament; (b) the proposed power to amend the definition by regulation should, therefore, only be used in the event that swift action is required to address an unforeseen risk of significant consumer harm; and (c) as part of the ongoing maintenance of Treasu. [...] Relevant facets of the implementation include: (a) the potential for corporate groups to hold multiple licences with different authorisations; (b) the manner in which the authorisation is denoted on the register of ACLs maintained by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC); and (c) how the amended responsible lending obligations would apply in practice, given the incentives tha. [...] Conversely, the ACL Committee is of the view that the removal of consumer protections where the credit limit of a contract is less than $2,000 is arbitrary and ignores the experiences of disadvantaged and vulnerable consumers using these arrangements for whom this amount can form a significant portion of their income. [...] In this regard, the ACL Committee suggests the following reforms: (a) the presumption of compliance with the obligation that the arrangement meets the consumer’s requirements and objectives for amounts less than $2,000 should be removed, especially where consideration of whether a matter is adequate must already take into account the nature, scale and complexity of the credit activities engaged in.