Children’s nightwear standard – ACCC 2016 action

As many people are aware, the current Australian/New Zealand Standard 1249 was published by Standards Australia in 2014. In February 2016 New Zealand adopted AS/NZS 1249:2104 as mandatory (with a 12 month transition period).

We have been awaiting the ACCC’s move to propose AS/NZS 1249:2104 become the mandatory standard for Australia. Today the ACCC has released its consultation document which is the first step in adopting AS/NZS 1249:2104 as Australia’s mandatory standard.

The consultation document takes the form of a regulatory impact statement (RIS) which is required by the Australian Government.

Anyone who has an interest in the children’s nightwear market should read the RIS and think through how it would affect your products, your production and buying practices.

The RIS sets out various options for mandating the revised standard, including:

Adopting AS/NZS 1249:2104 as is (as New Zealand has done)
Adopting AS/NZS 1249:2104 with some variations

The RIS includes some questions on specific issues associated with mandating the standard.

It is really important to examine the practical aspects of AS/NZS 1249:2104 and any other proposed changes in the RIS to work out whether the changes will be workable and achievable. There may be some lessons learnt from the New Zealand experience so far that can be fed into the ACCC’s consultation.