Western Australian Consolidated Acts

FAIR TRADING ACT 1987 - SECT 47

47 .         Commissioner may proceed for another

        (1)         Where a person, not being a body corporate, has made a complaint to the Commissioner in respect of a matter arising under or in relation to a contravention or suspected contravention of a code of practice and the Commissioner, after investigating the complaint, is satisfied that — 

            (a)         the complainant may, with respect to that matter, have a right to take proceedings before a court or the State Administrative Tribunal or a defence to proceedings taken before a court or the State Administrative Tribunal by another person against the complainant in respect of that matter; and

            (b)         it is in the public interest that the Commissioner should take or, as the case may be, defend those proceedings on behalf of the complainant,

                the Commissioner may, with the consent in writing of the Minister and the complainant, take or defend those proceedings on behalf of and in the name of the complainant.

        (2)         Where a complainant has given a consent to the taking or defending by the Commissioner of proceedings before a court or the State Administrative Tribunal on behalf of the complainant, that consent is not, after the Commissioner has taken steps in those proceedings, revocable except with the concurrence of the Commissioner.

        (3)         Where, under this section, the Commissioner takes or defends proceedings before a court or the State Administrative Tribunal on behalf of a complainant — 

            (a)         the Commissioner shall have the conduct of those proceedings on behalf of the complainant, may (notwithstanding anything in any Act) appear personally or by counsel, solicitor or agent and may do all such things as are necessary or expedient to give effect to an order or decision of the court or the State Administrative Tribunal;

            (b)         the Commissioner is liable to pay the costs of the complainant; and

            (c)         the complainant is liable to pay any amount (other than costs for which the Commissioner is liable under paragraph (b)), that the court or the State Administrative Tribunal orders the complainant to pay.

        [Section 47 amended by No. 55 of 2004 s. 339.]