Price Exploitation Prevention Act 1949

(1) Where the Controller is of opinion that it is necessary so to do in order to prevent a person (in this section referred to as the vendor) who carries on the business of selling declared goods or supplying declared services from continuing to operate a scheme which, in the opinion of the Controller:

(b) would not be operated but for the provisions of this Act or of an order thereunder; and

(c) has the effect that the real cost (taking into account losses involved in transactions connected with the scheme) to any purchaser or purchasers of goods from the vendor, of any declared goods so purchased, or to any person or persons to whom services are supplied by the vendor, of any declared services so supplied, is more than the maximum price or rate fixed under this Act for the sale of those goods or the supply of those services,

he may, by notice in writing directed to the vendor, specify a class of transactions (being, in the opinion of the Controller, a class of transactions which is being used for the purposes of the scheme) to be a class of transactions to which this section shall apply.

(2) Except with the consent of the Controller, a person to whom a notice under this section (duly given) is directed shall not, while the notice remains unrevoked, enter into a transaction included in a class of transactions specified in the notice.

Maximum penalty: If the offender is a natural person – 100 penalty units.

If the offender is a body corporate – 500 penalty units.

(3) A notice under this section shall specify the class of declared goods or declared services in relation to which, in the opinion of the Controller, the scheme is being operated, but shall have full force and effect notwithstanding that it does not specify or describe the scheme which, in the opinion of the Controller, makes the notice necessary.

(3A) The Controller must specify in a notice under this section the date, not more than 12 months after the date on which the notice is given, after which the notice is to cease to be of effect.

(a) is of no effect unless a date is specified in the notice under subsection (3A); and

(b) ceases to be of effect after the date specified under subsection (3A), unless the notice is earlier revoked.

(4) Any reference in this section to a person shall be deemed to include a reference to persons included in a class of persons, and this section shall apply, with the necessary changes, accordingly.