Electronic Commerce Act 2006

This Act may be cited as the Electronic Commerce Act 2006.

This Act comes into operation on a date to be appointed by the Minister by notification in the Gazette.

Subject to section 3, this Act shall apply to any commercial transaction conducted through electronic means including commercial transactions by the Federal and State Governments.

This Act shall not apply to the transactions or documents specified in the Schedule.

The Minister may by order amend, vary, delete from or add to the Schedule.

Nothing in this Act shall make it mandatory for a person to use, provide or accept any electronic message in any commercial transaction unless the person consents to the using, providing or accepting of the electronic message.

A person’s consent to use, provide or accept any electronic message in any commercial transaction may be inferred from the person’s conduct.

The application of this Act shall be supplemental and without prejudice to any other laws regulating commercial transactions.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“electronic” means the technology of utilizing electrical, optical, magnetic, electromagnetic, biometric, photonic or other similar technology;

“Minister” means the Minister charged with the responsibility for domestic trade and consumer affairs;

“electronic message” means an information generated, sent, received or stored by electronic means;

“originator” means a person by whom or on whose behalf, the electronic message is generated or sent;

“addressee” means a person who is intended by the originator to receive the electronic message;

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“information processing system” means an electronic system for generating, sending, receiving, storing or processing the electronic message;

“electronic signature” means any letter, character, number, sound or any other symbol or any combination thereof created in an electronic form adopted by a person as a signature;

“commercial transactions” means a single communication or multiple communications of a commercial nature, whether contractual or not, which includes any matters relating to the supply or exchange of goods or services, agency, investments, financing, banking and insurance.