Online purchase ACL rights: Amazon, eBay, and overseas sellers

Buying online is second nature for most Australians — a few taps and something arrives at your door. But when the item turns up broken, nothing like the listing, or doesn't arrive at all, the question of who is responsible and what law applies can feel murky. Sellers hide behind overseas addresses, marketplaces say they're just a platform, and customer service scripts are designed to wear you down. The good news: the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) covers a lot more online shopping than most retailers want you to know.

Quick answer

If you bought from a business that operates in Australia — including Australian-registered sellers on Amazon AU or eBay AU — the ACL consumer guarantees apply in full. That means you have the right to a remedy when goods are faulty, misdescribed, or unfit for their purpose, regardless of what the seller's returns policy says. For overseas sellers with no Australian presence, your ACL rights are harder to enforce, but you still have options through your payment provider and the marketplace's own buyer-protection programs. The key question is always: who did you actually buy from, and do they have a presence in Australia?

What the law actually says

The Australian Consumer Law is Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. It applies to any supply of goods or services by a business in trade or commerce to a consumer in Australia. "In trade or commerce" and "in Australia" are the two tests that matter for online shopping.

When you buy goods, the ACL automatically attaches a set of consumer guarantees to the sale. The ones most relevant to online purchases are:

• Section 54 — Acceptable quality. Goods must be safe, durable, free from defects, and fit for the purposes they're commonly used for. A phone that stops charging after two weeks isn't durable. A jacket with stitching that unravels on first wear isn't free from defects.
• Section 55 — Fitness for disclosed purpose. If you told the seller you needed the item for a specific use — say, a laptop for video editing — and it can't do that, the guarantee is breached.
• Section 56 — Match the description. Online shopping is almost entirely description-based. If the listing said "waterproof" and the item isn't, or the dimensions were wrong, or the photos showed a different product, that's a breach of the description guarantee.
• Section 29 — False representations. A seller who makes false claims about a product's features, origin, or quality in a listing may also be breaching the ACL's prohibition on misleading conduct. See our deeper look at misleading conduct examples.

When a guarantee is breached, your remedies sit in sections 259–263. Whether you can demand a refund outright or must accept a repair first depends on whether the failure is major or minor. A major failure — goods that are unsafe, can't be used for their normal purpose, or are substantially different from the description — gives you the right to choose your remedy. A minor failure gives the seller the first opportunity to fix the problem.

Crucially, section 64 makes it unlawful for a business to exclude, restrict, or modify these guarantees. A "no returns on change of mind" policy is fine — that's not what the guarantees cover. But a policy that says "all sales final, no refunds for faulty goods" is unenforceable against a consumer guarantee claim.

When this applies (and when it doesn't)

The ACL applies when:

• You bought from a business (not a private individual) that is operating in Australia or supplying goods into Australia as part of its trade or commerce.
• This includes Australian sellers on Amazon AU, eBay AU, Catch, and similar marketplaces.
• It also includes overseas businesses that actively target Australian consumers — for example, a US retailer with an Australian-dollar checkout, an Australian ABN, or an Australian warehouse.
• The goods cost up to $100,000, or are of a kind ordinarily bought for personal, domestic, or household use.

The ACL is harder to rely on when:

• You bought from a private seller on a marketplace (an individual selling their old camera on eBay, for instance). Consumer guarantees apply to businesses, not private sellers.
• The overseas seller has no Australian presence — no ABN, no Australian warehouse, no Australian-dollar pricing, and no active marketing to Australians. In this case, you can still pursue remedies through your bank (chargeback) or the marketplace's buyer-protection program, but the ACL itself is difficult to enforce across borders.
• If the overseas seller was not directly offering goods or services to consumers in Australia, the ACL may not apply. Factors like no ABN, no Australian warehouse, no AUD pricing, and no active targeting of Australians may point that way, but they are not decisive by themselves. If the seller did supply directly to an Australian consumer, the ACL can still apply even without an Australian physical presence. In practice, though, enforcing ACL rights across borders may be difficult, so consumers often also pursue a chargeback through their bank or use the marketplace/payment provider’s buyer-protection process.
• You simply changed your mind. The ACL doesn't require any seller to accept change-of-mind returns. Many do as a goodwill policy, but it's not a legal obligation.
• The fault was disclosed before purchase — a listing that said "sold as-is, screen has a crack" can't later be the basis of a defect claim on the screen.

For a detailed breakdown of what happens when you buy from an overseas seller specifically, see buying from overseas and Amazon — ACL explained.

What to do today

When an online purchase goes wrong, the steps below give you the best chance of a quick resolution:

1. Work out who you actually bought from. Check your order confirmation. Is the seller an Australian business, an overseas entity, or a marketplace like Amazon itself? This determines who you contact and what law applies.

2. Gather your proof of purchase. Your order confirmation email, the payment record in your bank app, or a screenshot of the order history page — any of these counts. You don't need a paper receipt.

3. Document the problem. Take photos or video of the defect, note the date you received the item and when you first noticed the issue, and save any communications with the seller. If the item doesn't match the listing, screenshot the original listing before it's taken down.

4. Contact the seller in writing first. Use the marketplace's messaging system or email — not a phone call. State the date of purchase, describe the failure clearly, identify which consumer guarantee you say has been breached (acceptable quality, description, fitness for purpose), and state what remedy you're seeking. Give a reasonable deadline — 14 days is standard for most goods disputes.

5. Escalate within the marketplace if the seller ignores you. Amazon's A-to-z Guarantee and eBay's Money Back Guarantee both offer buyer protection that runs alongside your ACL rights. Use them in parallel, not instead of your legal rights.

6. If the seller is overseas and unresponsive, contact your bank. A chargeback request through your credit or debit card provider is often the fastest path to recovery when the seller is outside Australia's jurisdiction. Act quickly — most card schemes have a 120-day window from the transaction date.

If you need a properly drafted demand letter that cites the right ACL sections and sets out your claim clearly, generate one for free at fairgo. It takes about 90 seconds and produces a letter you send under your own name.

What if the business refuses

A written demand letter resolves most disputes. When it doesn't, you have several escalation paths:

Your state or territory Fair Trading body. Each state and territory runs a free conciliation service. They contact the business on your behalf and try to broker a resolution without you needing to go to a tribunal. A full list of contact details is at /agencies. This is usually the right first step after a refused demand letter.

Your state consumer tribunal. If conciliation fails, you can file a claim at NCAT (NSW), VCAT (Victoria), QCAT (Queensland), SAT (Western Australia), SACAT (South Australia), and their equivalents in other states and territories. Filing fees are modest — typically $50–$100 — you don't need a lawyer, and the process is designed for ordinary people. For help choosing the right tribunal, see NCAT, VCAT, QCAT — which tribunal do you use?.

The ACCC. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission enforces the ACL at a national level, but it investigates systemic conduct rather than resolving individual disputes. Reporting to the ACCC is worthwhile if you believe the seller is running a widespread scam or making false claims at scale, but it won't get your money back directly.

Chargeback (for overseas sellers). If the seller is overseas and the ACL is difficult to enforce, a chargeback through your card provider is often the most practical remedy. Contact your bank and explain that the goods were not as described or were never delivered. Keep your documentation — the bank will ask for it.

If your item never arrived at all, the process is slightly different — see online order never arrived: what to do for a step-by-step guide specific to non-delivery.

Common mistakes

These are the errors that most often undermine otherwise valid claims:

• Assuming the marketplace is responsible when it's the seller. On most marketplaces, the seller — not Amazon or eBay — is the party you have a contract with and the party the ACL applies to. The marketplace's buyer-protection program is a separate, voluntary scheme. Confusing the two can send you down the wrong escalation path.

• Accepting "our policy is no refunds" as the final word. Store policy cannot override the ACL. If a consumer guarantee has been breached, the seller's policy is irrelevant. Politely but firmly cite the relevant section — section 54 for acceptable quality, section 56 for misdescription — and ask them to respond to the legal point, not the policy.

• Waiting too long. There's no single time limit in the ACL — your rights persist for as long as it's reasonable to expect the goods to last. But evidence gets harder to gather over time, listings disappear, and sellers close. Act as soon as you notice a problem.

• Disposing of the faulty goods. Without the item, the seller can dispute whether it was actually defective. Keep the goods until the dispute is resolved, even if they're broken.

• Confusing a consumer guarantee with a manufacturer's warranty. The warranty is a voluntary promise from the manufacturer. The consumer guarantee is a statutory right against the seller. The guarantee often outlasts the warranty — a TV that fails after 14 months may be well outside its 12-month warranty but still covered by the acceptable-quality guarantee. For more on this distinction, see consumer guarantees vs warranty — what's the difference?.

• Claiming change of mind as a defect. If the item works as described and you simply don't want it anymore, that's a change of mind. The ACL doesn't cover it. Mischaracterising a change of mind as a defect weakens your credibility if the dispute escalates.

• Going straight to a tribunal without trying conciliation. Tribunals expect you to have tried to resolve the dispute directly first. Skipping that step can count against you and delays the process unnecessarily.

Related reading

• Buying from overseas or Amazon — does the ACL apply?
• Online order never arrived — what to do
• Can you demand a refund under the ACL?

This article is general information about Australian Consumer Law, not legal advice. The ACL is complex and your situation may have details that change the analysis. For advice on your specific case, see your state's Fair Trading body — full list at /agencies.