The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will be implementing mandatory product safety reporting requirements for businesses.

From 1 January 2011, businesses will be required to track and follow up on any consumer complaints about their products, specifically notifying the ACCC within two days of learning that their product may have caused serious injury, illness or death.

According to Peter Kell, deputy chairman of ACCC, The reporting requirement was introduced to enable potential product safety hazards to be identified more readily, enabling a more rapid and targeted response to emerging safety issues.”

The ACCC has released draft guidelines to assist businesses in submitting reports, with a number of forums around the topic due to be held in 2011.

Information about the reporting requirements are available online, with updates about the developments available on Twitter.