Now lawBusiness & Trade Introduced in the House of Representatives, 25 Mar 2026

Border officers can now fine importers of fake brands

People caught bringing in fake branded goods used to lose only the goods. Now the Australian Border Force, the agency that guards the border, can hand them a fine on the spot, without going to court.

Official name: Customs Legislation Amendment (False Trade Marks Infringement Notices) Bill 2026

Who it affects

• People and businesses who import fake branded goods: On top of losing the goods, they can now be fined by border officers or taken to court.
• Brand owners: The government can now punish importers of fakes, so brand owners do not have to pay for a court case.
• Honest importers: The government says nothing changes for them, because fines only come once goods are found to be fake.
• Shoppers: The government hopes fewer fake goods, like fake medicines and electronics, end up in Australian shops.

Fake goods worth $4.98 billion

A trade mark is a brand name, logo or other sign. It shows who made a product. Brand owners can register their trade mark so others cannot copy it. Fake goods that copy a registered trade mark are called counterfeits.

The Parliamentary Library works for all MPs and takes no side. It says fake and illegally copied goods in Australia were worth about $4.98 billion in 2023-24. The Australian Border Force guards Australia's borders. It seized over 700,000 fake items in 2024-25.

Right now, a brand owner can give the Border Force a form called a Notice of Objection. Officers can then hold any goods coming in that seem to copy that brand. In most cases the importer just gives up the goods.

When that happens, the government cannot fine or charge the importer. Losing the goods is the only cost. The government says some importers send lots of shipments on purpose. They accept that some get caught. The ones that slip through make enough money to cover the losses.

A brand owner can sue. But the government says a full court case costs between $200,000 and $500,000. That is often too much for small businesses. This law aims to make bringing in fakes lose money for the people doing it.

A new fake brand crime

The law adds a new crime to the Commerce (Trade Descriptions) Act 1905. That is an old law about labels on goods coming into and leaving Australia.

You break this law if you bring in goods and one of three things is true. The goods carry a registered trade mark. They carry a mark that is nearly the same as one. Or a registered trade mark on them has been changed, covered up, added to or removed.

For this crime, the government does not have to prove you meant to do it. It does not have to prove you knew. It only has to show that you brought in the goods and they had a false mark.

You still have a defence if you made an honest and fair mistake about the facts. Say you checked a supplier carefully. You had good reason to believe the goods were real.

The top fine a court can give a person is $19,800. That was the amount when the government wrote its notes on the bill. Fines are set in units, and each unit was worth $330 then. The unit's value goes up over time. A company can be fined up to five times more. There is no jail time.

When the brand owner agreed

The crime does not apply if the brand owner said yes to the mark being put on or changed. It also does not apply if someone they let use the brand said yes.

It also does not apply if the law allowed or required the mark. That could be the Trade Marks Act 1995, which is the main trade mark law, a court, or the official who keeps the list of trade marks.

If you rely on one of these defences, you have to point to some evidence of it first. The government says this is fair. Only you and the brand owner know about the yes. The lawyers bringing the case then have to prove your evidence wrong.

On-the-spot fines

The law also changes the Customs Regulation 2015. That is a set of detailed rules for customs, the checks on goods coming into Australia. The law adds the new crime to the customs scheme for on-the-spot fines.

An on-the-spot fine is one you can pay to make the matter go away, with no court case. It works a bit like a parking ticket. If you do not pay, you can still be charged in court.

Under customs law, an on-the-spot fine can be at most $4,950 for a person. For a company it can be at most $24,750.

The government says the Border Force will only fine people after goods are found to be fake through the usual checks. Officers can choose what to do. They can do nothing, give a warning, hand out a fine or send the case to court. They can think about things like whether it is a first offence or an honest mistake. They can think about how many goods there were and whether they were unsafe.

Say a small online shop brings in 500 handbags with a famous designer's logo. Officers seize the bags under a Notice of Objection. The shop gives them up. Before this law, that was the end of it. Now the shop owner could also get a fine.

Which goods it covers

The new rules apply to goods brought in on or after the day the law starts. It does not matter when the fake mark was put on the goods.

Start date

The law starts on a day the government picks. If no day is picked within six months of it becoming law, it starts by itself the day after those six months end.

The bill was brought into the House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament, on 25 March 2026. The House passed it on 1 April 2026. The Senate, the upper house, passed it on 14 May 2026. The Governor-General, who stands in for the King, signed it into law on 20 May 2026. It is now Act No. 43 of 2026.

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

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

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