Now lawTech & Online Introduced in the House of Representatives, 28 Aug 2025

Phone and internet sellers must now sign up or face fines

Australia has a new law for phone and internet sellers. They must join a government list kept by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the agency that checks phone companies follow the rules (the watchdog). The watchdog can now go straight to a court fine for a first breach of customer rules.

Official name: Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill 2025

Who it affects

• Phone and internet customers: Rules that protect you, like fair selling and help when you cannot pay, can now be enforced straight away. If a seller is taken off the list, it must tell you and move you to another listed seller.
• Phone and internet sellers: You must sign up to the list once it starts, and you can face much bigger fines for breaking customer rules.
• Phone network owners and wholesalers (companies that sell network access to other sellers): You cannot sell network access to a seller that should be on the list but is not.
• Small or new sellers: You have a new sign-up step. The government says being on the list should help customers trust you.

Why it exists

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is the government agency that checks that phone, internet, TV and radio companies follow the rules. We call it the watchdog here.

Companies that sell phone and internet plans are called carriage service providers. The government's notes on the bill say there may be more than 1,500 of them. A bill is a draft law. Nobody keeps a full list of these sellers, so the watchdog does not always know who is out there.

Many key customer rules sit in industry codes. A code is a rule book that the phone industry writes and the watchdog approves. Before this law, a company that broke a code got two steps first. In step one, the watchdog could give a formal warning or order the company to follow the code. The watchdog could only use stronger action, like a court fine, if the company ignored that order.

Anika Wells, the Minister for Communications, brought in this bill on 28 August 2025. An earlier bill like it passed the House of Representatives in the last Parliament. That is the house where the government is formed. It lapsed (ended without becoming law) when Parliament closed for the 2025 election. This bill is a new one.

A register of providers

Part 1 of the law changes the Telecommunications Act 1997, the main law for phone companies. It sets up a list of phone and internet sellers. Sellers of certain services must join the list before they sell to customers. The sources do not say which services, or what the sign-up costs. They say a sign-up fee may be charged, and a listing lasts one year unless set otherwise.

Network owners and wholesalers cannot sell network access to a seller that should be on the list but is not. A wholesaler is a company that sells network access to other sellers. This makes it hard to avoid the rules.

The watchdog can take a seller off the list if it puts customers at too much risk or causes serious harm. A seller taken off must tell its customers and move them to another listed seller. The aim is to keep customers connected. The government says this is a last step. Sellers can ask for the decision to be reviewed, and there is a way back onto the list.

The Australian Energy Regulator, the energy watchdog, already has a similar power to remove power sellers from the market. The minister can set more details of the list in extra rules. These rules are written by the government and do not need a new vote in Parliament.

Customer codes now enforceable

Part 2 of the law makes following these approved codes a must. The watchdog no longer has to give a warning or order first and wait for a second breach. It can go straight to a court fine.

This matters most for the main code that protects phone and internet customers. It is called the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code. It covers things like how plans are sold. It also covers how sellers treat customers who are struggling to pay.

Say a seller signs you up to a plan you clearly cannot afford. That goes against the code. Before this law, the watchdog first had to tell it to follow the code. Now the watchdog can act on that first breach.

Part 2 also covers things done before the law started. The government's notes say it expects the watchdog to use common sense on old cases that nobody has dealt with yet. A court fine is not automatic. The watchdog may still choose a warning or a promise to fix the problem. The sources do not say what customers can do about a breach. They say the list should help the watchdog deal with complaints faster.

Much bigger fines

Part 3 of the law raises the top court fine for breaking an industry code or industry standard. A standard is a rule book the watchdog writes itself when a code is not good enough. These bigger fines only apply to things done after the law started.

The old top fine was $250,000. The new top fine is 30,300 penalty units. A penalty unit is a set dollar amount used to work out fines. That many units was $9.999 million when the bill was written.

For companies, the top fine can be even bigger. The court works out three amounts and uses the biggest. The first is 30,300 penalty units. The second is three times what the company gained from the breach. The third is 30 per cent of its turnover (total sales) during the breach. A company with very large sales could pay far more than $9.999 million.

The government says this matches the rules for energy, banking and general consumer law.

On-the-spot fines

The watchdog can give out an infringement notice. That is an on-the-spot fine paid without going to court. The minister can raise the amount of these fines.

Before this law, the minister could only raise them for some breaches, and not for breaches of industry standards. Part 4 of the law lets the minister raise them for any breach where the watchdog can already give an on-the-spot fine. It does not add new types of breaches. It applies to things done after the law started.

The law also sets a new top limit for these fines. The limit is a share of the top court fine for that breach. The government says this is lower than the old limit of 18,000 penalty units.

Law since October 2026

Parts 2 to 4 of the law started the day after it became law. Part 2 covers old conduct. Parts 3 and 4 only cover things done after that day.

The list (Part 1) has not started yet. It starts on a date the government sets, and at the latest 12 months after the law began. Sellers then have six months to join. So the sign-up rule can take up to 18 months to start.

The bill was brought in on 28 August 2025. The House of Representatives passed it on 14 May 2026. It went to the Senate, Parliament's second house, on 22 June 2026.

The Senate passed it on 15 October 2026, so it had passed both houses. The Governor-General (the King's representative in Australia) signed it into law on 26 October 2026. It is now Act No. 99 of 2026.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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