National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009

A buy now pay later arrangement is an arrangement or a series of arrangements:

under which a person (the merchant) supplies goods or services to a consumer (within the meaning of the National Credit Act); and

under which a third person (the BNPL provider) directly or indirectly pays the merchant an amount that is some or all of the price for the supply mentioned in paragraph (a); and

that includes a contract between the BNPL provider and the consumer under which the BNPL provider provides credit to the consumer in connection with the supply mentioned in paragraph (a).

However, an arrangement or a series of arrangements of the kind described in subsection (1) is not a buy now pay later arrangement if the arrangement or series of arrangements is of a kind prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this subsection.

For the purposes of subsection (1), and to avoid doubt:

it does not matter whether any fees or charges are payable by the consumer or the merchant in connection with the arrangement or series of arrangements; and

it does not matter whether the payment by the BNPL provider mentioned in paragraph (1)(b) occurs before, at or after the time when the goods or services are supplied by the merchant to the consumer as mentioned in paragraph (1)(a); and

it does not matter whether the contract mentioned in paragraph (1)(c) is a continuing credit contract; and

it is not necessary for the arrangement or series of arrangements to include any contract to which the merchant, the consumer and the BNPL provider are all parties.

A contract is a buy now pay later contract if:

it is part of a buy now pay later arrangement; and

it is a contract of the kind mentioned in paragraph (1)(c).