Australia Passes Landmark Scam Prevention Legislation

In Short

The Development: On 13 February 2025, the Australian Federal Parliament passed the Scams Prevention Bill 2025 (Cth) ("Bill"), the first of its kind worldwide.

The Context: The Bill comes after the Australian government estimated that AUD $2.7 billion was stolen from Australian consumers via scams in 2023. The Bill will initially require local and overseas entities operating in the Australian banking, telecommunications, and digital platform services sectors to take reasonable steps to prevent, detect, disrupt, respond to, and report scams, and to document and implement internal governance mechanisms to combat scams, or risk penalties of up to AUD $50 million per offense.