Our readers may have already read our "Doing Business in Australia" series of articles posted before. Recently quite a few relevant facts and policies have been updated. Hence we have produced a new version. You will be able to receive the updated articles about "Doing Business in Australia" in the coming weeks.

Electronic Commerce

Data Protection and Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, refers to all commercial transactions which are based on the electronic processing and transmission of data, including text, sound and images, including Internet transactions, electronic funds transfers and electronic data exchange.

Electronic Transactions Acts enacted by the Commonwealth, states and territories were passed to facilitate electronic transactions and to ensure the validity of the transactions involving electronic methods.

Electronic Contract Law

An electronic contract, or e-contract, is an agreement that is created and signed by electronic means either through email or by clicking through a website to indicate acceptance of terms and conditions.

The formation and validity of e-contracts in Australia is still predominantly governed by common law principles of contract.

Data Protection and Privacy

The Privacy Act (1988) contains Australian Privacy Principles which reflect each stage of the information cycle and regulate how information should be collected, stored, disseminated and destroyed.

Spam

Spam is unsolicited commercial electronic messaging and is prohibited under the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) (Spam Act). The objective of the legislation is to safeguard legitimate business communication activities and encourage the responsible use of electronic messaging.

The Spam Act covers “commercial electronic messages” that are sent via email, Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS) and Instant Messaging (IM) and originate in Australia, or originate overseas and are sent to an address accessed in Australia. Businesses must have the consent of the recipient before the message is sent. Consent can be express or inferred from a business, or other relationship with the recipient, or their conduct.

All commercial electronic messages must contain accurate information about the person or business responsible for sending the message and a functional unsubscribe function for the message’s recipients to indicate that they do not wish to receive such messages in the future.

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To view our previous news for Chinese investors and various articles in relation with the topic ‘Doing business in Australia’, please click the button on the upper-right hand corner on our WeChat platform, and choose ‘view history’. The contents include:

• Business set up in Australia, business structures,company administration, etc.

• Background information of Australia, including Australian government, legal system, and business structures, etc.

• Laws and regulations in various common areas, including protection of technology and intellectual property, anti-trust and consumer law, contract law, business migration, real property, public takeovers, and electronic commerce etc.