Stopping unfair telco practices

10th Mar 2026

When you sign up for a phone or internet service, most people expect clear information and fair treatment. This includes knowing what you signed up for, how much it costs, and what the options are if your situation changes.

At the TIO, we often hear from people who felt misled, pressured, or caught out by costs or conditions they didn’t understand. We’ve made a submission to Treasury’s consultation on introducing new laws to support banning unfair trading practices.

Read our full submission

What we hear from consumers

From the complaints we receive, unfair practices can show up in different ways, including:

unclear or confusing information about pricing, plans or contract terms
unexpected charges
contracts auto-renewing without the consumer’s knowledge
delays or failures to process cancellation requests, and unclear cancellation processes.

Unfair trading practices don’t just cause inconvenience. It can lead to people paying more than they can afford, staying in services they don’t want, or spending a lot of time trying to fix problems they didn’t cause.

What we’re calling for

We support the proposed changes to the Australian Consumer Law that aim to strengthen protections against unfair trading practices.

This includes proposing a general ban on unfair trading practices, new rules to make subscription contracts fairer, and to stop drip pricing.

Read the TIO's full submission to Treasury [316KB]