Unfair trading practices are changing. What does that mean for your digital experience?
From 1 July 2027, Australia’s new unfair trading practices regime will place greater scrutiny on how businesses present choices, pricing, subscriptions and cancellation to customers. For digital teams, this means decisions about defaults, disclosure, urgency, pricing and friction may need closer attention.
We’ve developed a practical Unfair Trading Practices UX Checklist to help digital, product, CX, legal and compliance teams understand where potential issues may exist within their customer experience and where it may be worth looking more closely.
Grounded in the legislation and Explanatory Memorandum
Covers both specific compliance requirements and judgement-based risk
Looks at the legislation through a customer experience and UX lens
What is changing?
The new unfair trading practices regime covers three areas particularly relevant to digital customer experiences.
Section 28B
Unfair trading practices
A broader prohibition applies to conduct that manipulates consumers or unreasonably distorts the environment in which they make decisions, where that conduct causes or is likely to cause detriment.
For digital teams, this brings greater scrutiny to the overall experience in which customers are making choices, including how information, options and actions are presented.
Section 48A
Pricing and transaction fees
The legislation introduces specific requirements for how mandatory transaction-based charges are presented alongside a base price.
This means teams need to consider not only whether fees are disclosed, but where, when and how clearly customers see them throughout the purchase journey.
Section 48B–48H
Subscriptions
Specific requirements also apply to subscription experiences, including what customers need to be told before entering a subscription and how they must be able to end one.
For digital experiences, this puts greater focus on the clarity of subscription information and the ease of cancellation.
What does this mean for customer experience?
Many of the practices covered by the new legislation happen through the customer experience itself.
The words customers see, the choices they’re presented with, what is selected by default and how easy it is to take an action can all influence customer decision-making.
Defaults matter
Pre-selected choices can influence customer decisions. Teams need to consider not only whether a default improves conversion, but how that choice is presented and who it benefits.
Getting out shouldn’t be harder than getting in
Subscription cancellation needs the same attention as acquisition and sign-up. If customers can subscribe online, the experience of ending that subscription also needs to be easy to find and straightforward.
Urgency needs to be genuine
Countdowns, low-stock messages, high-demand indicators and other forms of urgency need to reflect genuine conditions rather than creating artificial pressure.
Disclosure isn’t just about including the information
Simply having information somewhere in the experience may not be enough. Where information appears, when customers see it and whether they can reasonably understand it all matter.
The whole journey matters
An individual design pattern may have a legitimate purpose. But when multiple patterns occur within the same journey, their combined effect on customer decision-making becomes important.
Existing experiences need attention too
This isn’t only something to consider when designing new products or journeys. Organisations should also understand how existing checkout, subscription, cancellation and account experiences may be affected when the new regime commences.
Why look at this now?
The new unfair trading practices regime commences on 1 July 2027.
For organisations with established digital products and services, identifying potential issues early creates time to investigate them, involve the right teams and make changes where needed.
Changes to a checkout, subscription or cancellation journey can involve product, design, content, technology, legal and compliance teams. They may also need to be tested with customers before they’re implemented.
Starting now means you have time to understand the experience rather than responding under pressure later.
Start with your customer experience
Our Unfair Trading Practices UX Checklist is a practical starting point for reviewing your existing digital experience.
It includes 20 checks across two areas:
Hard compliance requirements
Specific, testable requirements relating to pricing and subscription experiences.
Judgement-based risk
Specific, testable requirements relating to pricing and subscription experiences.
Work through the checklist to identify areas that may warrant further investigation or discussion with your digital, product, legal and compliance teams.
The checklist looks at how customers experience your digital journeys. It is not a legal compliance assessment or legal advice. Your legal and compliance teams should determine how the legislation applies to your organisation, products and services.