Fair Trading Act 1987

An investigator may give an embargo notice in relation to consumer goods to an occupier of premises if the investigator has reasonable grounds to believe that—

the consumer goods are being manufactured, prepared, stored on or supplied from the premises in trade or commerce and the consumer goods—

do not comply with a safety standard (within the meaning of section 2 (1) of the ACL), or

are the subject of an interim or permanent ban, or

are the subject of a recall notice, or

are or are likely to become unsafe, and

it is not practicable to seize and remove the consumer goods or equipment used in the manufacturing, processing, storage or supply of the consumer goods.

An investigator may give an embargo notice in relation to product related services to an occupier of premises if the investigator reasonably believes that—

product related services are being supplied from the premises in trade or commerce, and

the product related services are unsafe, and

it is not practicable to seize and remove equipment used in connection with the supply of those unsafe product related services.

An embargo notice may do any one or more of the following—

require that specified consumer goods must not be—

supplied in or from the premises, or

transferred, moved, altered, destroyed or otherwise interfered with,

require that specified equipment—

used in the manufacturing, processing or storage of specified consumer goods, or

used in connection with the supply of specified product related services,

require that specified product related services must not be supplied in or from the premises during the period specified in the notice.

An embargo notice must—

be in writing, and

explain the effect of section 23G.

The investigator may give an embargo notice to the occupier of the premises—

by causing a copy of the notice to be served on the occupier, or

if the occupier cannot be located after reasonable steps have been taken to do so, by causing a copy of the notice—

to be served on a person on the premises who is reasonably believed to be in regular contact with the occupier, or

to be affixed to the premises, or to a thing on the premises, in a prominent position.

Despite anything in any other law, a contract for a supply of consumer goods or product related services that is prohibited by an embargo notice is void.

If consumer goods are supplied in contravention of an embargo notice—

the supplier must immediately return or refund to the person who acquired the goods any consideration (or the value of any consideration) that that person gave—

under an agreement for the supply, or

under a related contract or instrument, and

if the goods have been removed from the premises in which they were subject to the embargo notice, the person who acquired the goods must—

return the goods to the premises, or

notify the supplier of the place where the supplier may collect the goods, and

if paragraph (b) (ii) applies, the supplier must collect the goods from the place notified to the supplier and return them to the premises.