As an Australian manufacturer and distributor i would like to point out some of the laws which are required to be obeyed by if you are distributiing goods inside australia or from outside of australia in to local customers.

1. Electrical Compliance

All goods that are sold in australia that are electrical in nature must be certified for C-Tick standards, Which means your product must be approved prior to selling it in this country. Penalties start from $1320 per item sold and you may be liable for criminal prosecution under part 4 of the crimes act (deception offences)

Items include: Household electrical goods, Power Tools, Car Entertainment items (stereos,dvd players, screen etc)

2. Telecommunications Compliance.

All items that have the ability to directly or indirectly connect to a public switched telephone network MUST be tested and certified prior to being sold in this country (A-Tick). Penalties start from $1320 per item and up to $13,200 if found to be of commercial quantity. penalties also include being prosecuted by deception offences under the crimes act.

Items include, cabling products, networking products, wireless products, modems/routers etc

Here is a scenario as to why you should never supply illegal goods to customers:

A Customer purchases a toaster off ebay,and the toaster appears to work well. Whilst the customer is away from home, the toaster has an insulation fault and the toaster catches fire due to arcing wires. As a result the customers home burns down.

Fire inspectors find the toaster to be the cause of the fire and the insurance assessors researches the toaster and finds it was a non compliant item. The insurance company refuses to pay the insurance because the customers policy was voided because they were using illegal items.

As a result your customer is out of a home, they now have to sue you as a seller and also take action in the criminal court, you end up losing your assets and possibly do jail time all for a toaster.

on average i am finding between 20-50 sellers a day which are not complying with the relevant laws, The Australian Communications & Media Authority has a form for complaints of non compliance:

http://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/equipment-compliance-and-labelling-complaints

In order to learn more about compliance, See www.acma.gov.au or www.erac.gov.au

Help keep australia free of illegal goods, if you see someone distributing illegal items, report them immediately.