Alec Christie, a partner at the Sydney office of Anglo-US law firm DLA Piper, told the Lawyers Weekly newspaper that proposed privacy legislation currently before the Australian parliament would have far less impact than the potential use of existing consumer laws.
According to Mr Christie, while the Privacy Amendment Bill will introduce fines of up to Au$220,000 for individuals and up to Au$1.1 million for organsiations in breach, the law will only deal with, what the newspaper describes as ‘a serious invasion or repeated invasions of privacy’.
Standard of proof
However, the lawyer maintains the standard of proof is considerably lower in the existing Australian Consumer Law. ‘Consumer law has a lot more potential teeth than current and possibly the future regime under privacy, where you have to demonstrate serious breaches,’ Mr Christie told the newspaper.
According to the report, Mr Christie predicts Australian consumer groups will latch on to the scope for action in the exiting legislation, ‘which translates into more work for lawyers on both sides’.
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