Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Fair Trading Act 1999 - SECT 23

Unsolicited prescribed cards

23. Unsolicited prescribed cards



(1) A person must not give or send a prescribed card to another person except-

   (a)  in pursuance of a request in writing by the other person to do so; or

   (b)  in renewal or replacement of, or in substitution for-

   (i)  a prescribed card of the same kind previously given or sent to the
        other person, and, in pursuance of a request in writing by the other
        person to the person who issued the card to do so; or

   (ii) a prescribed card of the same kind previously given or sent to the
        other person and used for a purpose for which it was intended to be
        used. Penalty: 240 penalty units, in the case of a natural person.
600 penalty units, in the case of a body corporate.

(2) Subsection (1) applies only in relation to the giving or sending of a
prescribed card by or on behalf of the person who issued the card.

(3) A person must not take any action that enables another person-

   (a)  who has a credit card to use the card as a debit card; or

   (b)  who has a debit card to use the card as a credit card-

except in accordance with a request in writing by the other person.

Penalty: 600 penalty units, in the case of a natural person.
1200 penalty units, in the case of a body corporate.





(4) In this section-

article includes a token, card or document;

credit card means any article of a kind commonly known as a credit card or any
similar article intended for use in obtaining cash, goods or services on
credit, and includes any article of a kind commonly issued by persons carrying
on business to customers or prospective customers of those persons for use in
obtaining goods or services from those persons on credit;

debit card means an article intended for use by a person in obtaining access
to an account held by the person for the purpose of withdrawing or depositing
cash or obtaining goods or services;

prescribed card means any of the following-

   (a)  an electronic or magnetic card enabling the transfer of funds;

   (b)  a stored value card;

   (c)  a credit card;

   (d)  a debit card;

   (e)  an article that may be used as a credit card and a debit card;

   (f)  any other prescribed article;

stored value card means an article which has been encoded with monetary value
which can be drawn upon and which may or may not be rechargeable.