Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Competition and Consumer Law

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
LAW1033	City Campus	Postgraduate	615H Accounting	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2008, Sem 1 2009, Sem 2 2009
LAW1033	City Campus	Postgraduate	660H Graduate School of Business and Law	Face-to-Face	Sem 2 2011, Sem 2 2016, Sem 2 2017, Sem 2 2018, Sem 2 2020, Sem 2 2022, Spring2023
LAW2419	Open Learning Australia	Non Award	660H Graduate School of Business and Law	Distance / Correspondence	OUAS3PG23

Course Coordinator: Christopher Russo

Course Coordinator Phone: -

Course Coordinator Email: christopher.russo@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Availability: Please email for appointment

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Required Prior Study
040015 - Introduction to the Australian Legal System and Legal Methods
049812 - Contract Law
 

Course Description

This course will introduce students to the Competition and Consumer Law Act 2010 (C’th) (the CCA) and application laws of the States and Territories.
The CCA represents the adoption of a national scheme for the regulation of restrictive trade practices and consumer law. The national scheme effectively commenced in January 2011.
The restrictive trade practices provisions of the CCA adopt provisions of the superseded Trade Practices Act 1974 (C’th) (TPA) dealing with topics including; exclusive contracts, cartels, misuse of market power, exclusive dealings, resale price maintenance and mergers. The consumer law provisions of the CCA, in part, adapts some provisions of the TPA dealing with misleading conduct and representations and provides for new provisions dealing with unfair contract terms and contractual guarantees.
In addition the CCA adopts certain provisions of the TPA dealing with penalties and remedies and provides for new provisions dealing with penalties, enforcement powers and consumer redress options.
Competition and consumer law has widespread application to commercial and consumer transactions and disputes and must be considered by practitioners in the course of planning and implementing commercial transactions.
 

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

See learning outcomes
 

Upon successful completion of this course you will be able to:

1. demonstrate an advanced and integrated understanding of the legal issues under the Competition and Consumer Law Act (CCA) / Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and the role, powers and functions of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as well as the important provisions of the CCA and various legal remedies available for breaches of the legislation;
2. critically evaluate the law relating to the CCA and ACL and the ACCC; 
3. analyse and research complex problems relating to CCA and make reasoned and appropriate choices amongst alternatives;

4. demonstrate sophisticated cognitive and creative skills in approaching legal issues relating to CCA and generate appropriate responses;
5. Demonstrate the intellectual and practical skills needed to justify and interpret theoretical propositions, legal methodologies, conclusions and professional decisions and identify, research, evaluate and synthesise relevant factual, legal and policy issues relating to CCA, ACL and the ACCC.
 

Overview of Learning Activities

To achieve the objectives of this course you should participate in the following learning activities:

• small group work and class discussions
• legal research
• current affairs concerning CCA

 

Overview of Learning Resources

From 2018, Canvas is RMIT University's Learning Management System. Canvas is a flexible online system which will provide you with an engaging and exciting learning experience as part of your studies with us. The Canvas platform will be the primary site for you to gain access to all the resources designed to support your learning in this course. Your Canvas portal can accessed by logging into the following RMIT page: https://www.rmit.edu.au/students

Overview of Assessment

The courses of the RMIT Graduate School Business and Law use assessment to measure and report on your achievement of learning outcomes and to provide you with feedback on your performance and progress.

Assessment will consist generally of assignments, class participation and final open book exam.