Setting and promoting prices feels simple-until it isn’t. With online sales, dynamic pricing and promotions changing fast, it’s easy for a small mistake to turn into customer complaints, refund demands or even regulator attention.
The good news is that Australian law gives you a clear framework for advertising prices fairly. If you understand the rules and build a few practical processes, you’ll protect your brand, reduce disputes and make it easy for customers to buy with confidence.
In this guide, we’ll unpack how advertised price law works in Australia, when you must show a “single price”, what to do about pricing mistakes, and how to handle surcharges, discounts and GST. We’ll also share a simple compliance checklist and the key contracts and policies that help you stay on track.
Pricing Basics Under The Australian Consumer Law
Advertised price law in Australia comes mainly from the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), which sits inside the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and applies nationally. If you promote prices to consumers-whether you sell in-store, online or both-you must ensure your pricing representations are accurate and not misleading.
Core obligations you should know
- Misleading or deceptive conduct: It’s unlawful to engage in conduct that misleads or is likely to mislead consumers. This applies to the overall impression your pricing creates, not just the fine print. If you’re making price claims, keep them accurate and clear. See more about the general prohibition in section 18.
- False or misleading representations about price: Specific claims about a price (for example, “normally $149”, “50% off today”, “lowest price”) must be true and substantiated. Inflating a “was” price or using stale reference pricing is risky. Learn how price representations are regulated under section 29.
- Component pricing and “single price”: If you choose to display or advertise a price, you generally need to present a single, total price that includes all mandatory, quantifiable charges (such as GST). This rule aims to stop “drip pricing” where unavoidable fees are added late in the checkout flow.
These obligations apply across Australia and are enforced by the ACCC and state/territory Fair Trading agencies. Even if your business is small, a pattern of pricing complaints or unclear pricing can draw scrutiny-so it pays to get the fundamentals right.
Do You Have To Display Prices?
There’s no blanket rule that every business must display prices in all contexts. However, where you do display or advertise a price to consumers, the ACL requires that representation to be accurate and, if component pricing is used, supported by a prominent single price.
In practice, customers expect to see prices up front-especially online-so clear pricing is both good business and a compliance safeguard.
When you display a price, you must…
- Present the total, single price prominently where practicable, inclusive of any mandatory, quantifiable charges (for example, GST and compulsory booking fees).
- Make sure any conditional or optional fees are genuinely optional and explained clearly before purchase.
- Avoid creating a misleading overall impression-if key qualifications are only in fine print, the headline claim can still mislead.
Online stores and checkout flows
If you run an ecommerce site or app, ensure the final checkout screen shows the single price payable before the customer commits to buy. Hidden fees revealed at the last step are a classic “drip pricing” risk.
Clear rules for your site can sit inside your Website Terms and Conditions, with pricing and payment clauses aligned to your processes and the ACL.
“Was/Now” and comparative pricing
- “Was/Now” pricing should reflect genuine, recent prices. If you say a product was $149, you should be able to show it was actually offered at $149 for a meaningful period.
- “RRP” or “compare at” claims need a proper basis. If hardly anyone sells at the RRP, the comparison can mislead.
- Be consistent across channels-if your social ad, product page and in-store label differ, you risk confusion and complaints.
If you’re unsure about how your marketing language will be interpreted, it’s safer to simplify and focus on clear dollar amounts and time-limited offers with plain conditions.
Do You Have To Honour Pricing Mistakes?
This is one of the most common-and nuanced-questions we hear.
First, a quick contract law refresher. A price tag on a shelf or a product page is usually an “invitation to treat” (an invitation for the customer to make an offer), not a binding offer by itself. The legal contract typically forms when you accept the customer’s order and take payment, or at the point your terms say acceptance occurs.
If a price is obviously wrong-say, a $2,000 TV shown as $20-and you catch it before accepting the order, you can generally correct the error and decline to proceed at the mistaken amount. You should fix the display promptly and communicate clearly to avoid confusion.
Once a contract is formed, refusing to honour the price becomes more complicated. You may still have arguments if the mistake is clear and fundamental, but you’re into legal and reputational risk territory. Often, the commercial decision is to honour some orders and correct your systems immediately.
What regulators look for
- Patterns of behaviour: “Accidental” errors that keep happening can be viewed as misleading conduct rather than one-off mistakes.
- Speed of correction: Fixing the error quickly, contacting affected customers and offering fair remedies shows good faith.
- Overall impression: If your ads suggest customers can rely on the price, but you regularly decline orders at that price, that’s a problem.
Ultimately, whether you must honour a particular price will depend on when a contract was formed, how obvious the error was, and the steps you took to correct it. When in doubt, get advice early and act consistently to reduce risk. For context on how misleading conduct is assessed, it’s worth understanding the elements of misleading or deceptive conduct under the ACL.
Surcharges, Fees, Discounts And GST: What Must Be Included?
One of the trickiest parts of price compliance is knowing what must be included in the single price and what can be added later.
Single price (total price) rule
When you advertise or display a price to consumers, you generally must show a single, total price that includes all mandatory, quantifiable charges. Examples include:
- GST (if applicable to the sale),
- mandatory booking, handling or service fees (if every customer must pay them), and
- any taxes or duties that will always apply and can be calculated.
If a fee is truly optional (for example, gift wrapping, an upsell, or express shipping the customer can decline), it doesn’t need to be included in the single price-provided it’s not unavoidable for a typical purchase and you’re transparent about it before checkout.
Delivery and shipping
Delivery can be treated differently depending on your offer. If your advertised offer includes delivery (for example, “$89 delivered”), the single price should include the delivery cost. If delivery is optional (for example, “$79 click-and-collect or $10 shipping”), you can present the item price prominently and add the chosen delivery option later-just make sure customers can see the total price they will actually pay before purchase.
Card surcharges and other payment fees
If you impose a compulsory surcharge on certain payment methods (for instance, a fixed fee that applies to all credit card payments and can be calculated at the time of display), that charge should be factored into the single price when you first present the price for that payment path. Avoid surprises at the final step.
Discounts, bundles and “limited time” offers
- Keep your discounts genuine. Don’t inflate a “was” price to make a discount look bigger.
- Spell out material conditions in plain English-quantities, end dates, exclusions-so the overall impression remains accurate.
- For bundles, make sure the combined “single price” is clear and any required add-ons are included.
GST and tax notes
- If you’re registered for GST and you advertise a price to consumers, that price must include GST. Avoid “+GST” footnotes unless you’re dealing in a business-to-business context where exclusive pricing is clearly disclosed and appropriate.
- If a tax or compulsory charge applies and you can calculate it at the time of the price representation, include it in the single price.
To support transparency, many businesses set expectations around pricing, surcharge handling and refunds in their Terms of Trade and add a short, plain-language Disclaimer tailored to the nature of their offers. These documents don’t let you “contract out” of the ACL, but they do help you explain how your pricing works in a fair and consistent way.
Practical Compliance Checklist
Here’s a simple checklist you can use to reduce pricing risk across your website, ads and in-store materials.
- Show the single price prominently wherever practicable, inclusive of GST and other mandatory, quantifiable charges.
- Keep the overall impression honest-don’t rely on fine print to fix a misleading headline.
- Map your checkout flow so customers see the total payable amount before they commit to buy.
- Review “was/now” and comparative pricing to ensure reference prices are genuine and recent.
- Standardise price displays across channels (ads, product pages, shelf labels) to avoid confusion.
- Set an error-handling protocol: how to pause orders, correct displays, contact customers and document what happened.
- Train staff and your marketing team on the ACL rules for sections 18 and 29, and when the single price rule applies.
- Schedule periodic audits-especially after price changes, promotions or platform updates-to catch “drip pricing” or inconsistencies.
If you sell online or run time-limited campaigns, consider a quick pre-launch legal review. It’s a simple way to spot risks before customers do.
What Legal Documents And Policies Help?
Clear contracts and policies won’t replace compliance, but they do help you set expectations, act consistently and resolve issues faster. Depending on how you trade, consider:
- Website Terms and Conditions: Sets out how your site works, pricing displays, payment, delivery, refunds and dispute processes.
- Terms of Trade: A customer-facing set of terms for sales in-store or offline, covering pricing, payment timing, delivery and risk, returns and remedies.
- Warranties Against Defects Policy: If you offer your own warranty, you must include required ACL wording; this policy makes that clear.
- Privacy Policy: Essential if you collect personal information at checkout or for marketing; explains how you collect, use and store data.
- Disclaimer: A short statement clarifying non-essential aspects of offers (for example, that optional extras aren’t included in the price) without undermining ACL rights.
Not every business needs all of these, but most will benefit from at least a couple. It’s also smart to align your internal procedures (price updates, promotional approvals, error handling) with the wording in your customer-facing documents, so your team and your terms say the same thing.
Key Takeaways
- When you advertise or display a price to consumers in Australia, your pricing must be accurate, not misleading and presented as a single, total price where mandatory, quantifiable charges apply.
- There’s no universal rule forcing all businesses to display prices, but if you do, the ACL rules apply-and customers expect clarity, especially online.
- Obvious pricing errors caught before a contract forms can usually be corrected, but once you accept an order the risk increases; act quickly, communicate clearly and be consistent.
- Include GST and any compulsory, quantifiable fees in the single price; keep optional add-ons genuinely optional and transparent before purchase.
- Build simple controls: consistent price displays, a clear checkout total, honest “was/now” comparisons, and an error-handling plan.
- Support your compliance with clear documents-Website Terms and Conditions, Terms of Trade, a Privacy Policy and any required warranty wording-aligned to the ACL.
If you’d like a consultation on advertised price compliance for your business, you can reach us at 1800 730 617 or team@sprintlaw.com.au for a free, no-obligations chat.
