Section 135S — Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)

(1) An inspector who enters premises under a search warrant may give an embargo notice to the occupier of the premises.

(2) The inspector may give the notice to the occupier of the premises:

(a) by causing a copy of the notice to be served on the occupier; or

(b) if the occupier cannot be located after all reasonable steps have been taken to do so—by:

(i) causing a copy of the notice to be served on a person on the premises who is reasonably believed to be in regular contact with the occupier; or

(ii) causing a copy of the notice to be affixed to the premises, or to a thing on the premises, in a prominent position.

(3) The embargo notice must:

(a) be in writing; and

(b) specify the consumer goods, or product related services, to which the notice relates; and

(c) if the notice relates to consumer goods—state that the specified consumer goods must not be:

(i) supplied in or from the premises; or

(ii) transferred, moved, altered, destroyed or otherwise interfered with;

during the period specified in the notice; and

(d) if the notice relates to product related services—state that the specified product related services must not be supplied in or from the premises during the period specified in the notice; and

(e) explain the effect of section 135V or 135W.

(4) Despite anything in any other law, a contract for a supply of consumer goods or product related services that is prohibited by an embargo notice is void.

(5) If consumer goods are supplied in contravention of an embargo notice:

(a) the supplier must immediately return or refund to the person who acquired the goods any consideration (or the value of any consideration) that that person gave:

(i) under an agreement for the supply; or

(ii) under a related contract or instrument; and

(b) if the goods have been removed from the premises in which they were subject to the embargo notice—the person who acquired the goods must:

(i) return the goods to the premises; or

(ii) notify the supplier of the place where the supplier may collect the goods; and

(c) if subparagraph (b)(ii) applies—the supplier must collect the goods from the place notified to the supplier, and return them to the premises.

Related sections

• s 135P — Judge may permit consumer goods or equipment to be retained
• s 135Q — Recovery of reasonable costs of seizing consumer goods or equipment
• s 135R — Destruction or disposal of seized consumer goods or equipment
• s 135T — Embargo period for embargo notices
• s 135U — Multiple embargo notices for the same consumer goods or product related services
• s 135V — Power of inspectors to secure consumer goods

Research how courts apply s 135S

BriefBridge searches Australian caselaw by meaning — every answer cited to the paragraph.