Reporting other safety issues voluntarily

Submit a confidential voluntary report if:

  • you have assessed that a mandatory report is not legally required
  • the consumer good or product related service did not cause a death or serious injury or illness but had the potential to do so with a slight change in circumstances.
Submit a voluntary report

Even if you are not legally required to submit mandatory report, the ACCC strongly encourages you to adopt the best practice approach of voluntary reporting. 

This reduces the risk of committing a criminal offence or attracting a civil penalty and fines. It also provides the ACCC with early insight into potential risks of a consumer good or product related service.

You are encouraged to submit a voluntary report if it is possible that a similar incident with different circumstances could cause a death, serious injury or illness in the future.

Voluntary reports made to the ACCC are confidential and treated in accordance with the ACCC/AER Information Policy.  

Types of incidents to voluntarily report

Situations that do not require a mandatory report but the ACCC strongly encourages you to voluntarily report include:

  • a near miss
  • a serious injury or illness that developed slowly over time (not acute)
  • a pre-existing condition that contributed to the death, or serious injury or serious illness
  • the serious injury or illness was treated by someone who is not a medical doctor or a nurse (for example, a dentist or physiotherapist)
  • the incident was caused by the consumer good being misused in an unforeseeable way.

Example of an incident that should be voluntarily reported

A hoverboard charger caused a house fire and fortunately, no one was injured. As there was no death or serious injury or serious illness, the supplier of the hoverboard charger is not required to submit a mandatory report. However, this was still a potentially dangerous incident and the ACCC encourages suppliers to make voluntary reports in these circumstances to assist with monitoring emerging risks.

If in doubt, report it

If you are in any doubt about whether a mandatory report is required, you should submit it to ensure you comply with the 2 day reporting deadline.

Your report is confidential, not an admission of liability and can be incomplete if you do not have all the information by the deadline.

Submit a mandatory report

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