Boycott Bans?

[laura_seabrook]

Heard this on Hack on TripleJ yesterday (at about 6'28" in), and was rather disturbed by it. Apparently there's legislation in Federal Parliament to increase power of the ACCC.  If passed, the legislation, would allow the ACCC to take court action and seek compensation for losses incurred by third parties affected by boycotts, such as a potential customer or supplier (see ACCC powers to be bolstered). According to a Sydney Morning Herald article, "no free-speech defence is immediately available" in court; the in the TripleJ segment David Marr said (at about 16'35" in) that the two exemptions from being sued will be if it's about either a) for health reasons, or b)  the environment.

Huh? I can see problems here, can't you?

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Comments

Problems?

[yeopenbooke.livejournal.com]

Bet your ass!

Remember all these recalls of food, toys etc. from China?

Just think of Mattel trying to sue because someone started a boycott of them. They have plenty of money in their coffers for plenty of lawyers...

Back door for China to wage another stage of it's economic war on the west is exactly what this could become.

Re: Problems?

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

Just think of Mattel trying to sue because someone started a boycott of them. They have plenty of money in their coffers for plenty of lawyers...

But here's the thing - they wouldn't have to! Under the new legislation, teh ACCC would sue people for them!