Communications Update March 2007 - Regulatory Developments

ACMA releases guidelines for new enforcement powers

On 7 February 2007, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) released guidelines relating to its new enforcement powers introduced by the Communications Legislation Amendment (Enforcement Powers) Act 2006. The guidelines note that ACMA intends to use the minimum intervention necessary for the most appropriate enforcement action, depending on the scale, risk and urgency of the breach. Under the guidelines, the principles that ACMA will employ in making enforcement decisions include:

• promoting industry compliance with statutory obligations

• being proactive as well as reactive in its compliance activities

• keeping decisions free from conflicts of interest and gender, racial, religious or political bias