ecommercebusiness.com.auAn order, step by step

One online order, five stops

Ecommerce business: the rules at each step of an online order

The ACCC puts it in one line: “When a consumer shops online, all the usual consumer rights apply.” Some of those rules land at a particular moment in an order’s life, so this guide, published by Dotto, follows a single order from the shelf to the doorstep and back, one stop at a time, in the regulators’ own words.

A tall stack of flat corrugated cardboard cartons, seen side on.
Flat cartons, before they become orders. Photo by stux on Pixabay

The order track

  1. Before it is listed

    Product safety for online sellers

    The ACCC’s product safety site, productsafety.gov.au, says “Online businesses at every stage of the supply chain must follow Australian product safety laws.” That means mandatory standards and bans before a product goes up, and 2-day deadlines to tell the ACCC about a recall, or about a death, serious injury or illness linked to a product it supplied.

  2. At the checkout

    Card surcharges

    From 1 October 2026, the ACCC says “businesses can no longer charge a surcharge for payments made using Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos credit, debit or prepaid cards.” The guide covers where that rule comes from and what a checkout can still do.

  3. Across the border

    GST on imports and overseas sales

    An Australian GST-registered shop that drop ships from overseas has to account for GST on its sales of low value imported goods, the ATO says. Goods going the other way can be GST-free.

  4. On the way

    Delivery times and late orders

    Once a shop accepts payment, the Australian Consumer Law says it must supply all the goods within the period it specified at or before the time of payment, or within a reasonable time if it specified none, subject to two exceptions the guide sets out.

  5. When it comes back

    Refunds and returns

    The ACCC says it is illegal for businesses to rely on store policies or terms and conditions that deny consumer guarantee rights, such as ‘no refunds’. A change-of-mind policy is optional, but a shop that has one must follow it.

Who looks after which rule

Different bodies hold different parts of the order. Knowing which one is which saves a shop from asking the wrong office.

The ACCC
Deals with widespread issues under the Australian Consumer Law, not individual complaints. It also receives product recall notifications on behalf of the Commonwealth Minister.
State and territory agencies
Handle individual complaints and issues with businesses in their state or territory, and may offer voluntary dispute services.
The card networks
Set the ‘no surcharge’ rules in their scheme rules and merchant contracts; the networks or payment service providers enforce them, not the ACCC.
The ATO
Receives the GST that a business selling low value goods into Australia collects from its customers.

How far the rules reach

The consumer guarantees apply whether goods are new, ‘seconds’ or second-hand, and generally apply to goods bought online. They are not the same as warranties, and the ACCC draws the line this way: “Consumer guarantees are automatic and can’t be taken away. Warranties are extra promises that a business can choose to make on top of the consumer guarantees.”

Distance doesn’t change that. When an online business based overseas sells directly to consumers in Australia, it must follow the Australian Consumer Law, including the consumer guarantees.

The guides run in order, from the listing to the return, and each one ends at the next stop on the track.