Second Australia wide group purchase

[Simon Matthews]

> As overall organiser of the first batch I am happy to put my hand up to organise
> another batch of 50 phones if there is enough demand and i resolve a
> legal issue that is worrying me.
> 
I have resolved the legal issue to my satisfaction. For those that are
interested in the details they are.

For the first group purchase i used the following information from
the booklet 

"Telecommunications Labelling and Compliance Information for suppliers
of telecommunications equipment and cabling in Australia"

from www.acma.gov.au

In the introduction there is the statement

"Australian manufacturers and importers of telecommunications items, or
their Australian authorised agents acting on behalf of manufacturers and
importers (collectively referred to as ‘suppliers' throughout this
booklet), are required to label each item with either a compliance label
or non-compliance label. Items not specified by the Labelling Notice
must not be labelled."

But there is an exemption

"cellular mobile phones imported for personal use that meet the
applicable technical standard(s);"

For someone importing a single unit for themselves or in our case where
i am acting on behalf of a number of individuals one would think this
exemption should apply, but as i was importing sixty phones i started
wondering if i would be legally seen as a 'supplier' and that the
exemption wouldn't apply.

But looking at the actual Telecommunications Act we have

"413 Supply of unlabelled customer equipment or unlabelled
          customer cabling
      (1) If a person:
            (a) is a manufacturer or importer of customer equipment or
                customer cabling; and
            (b) is required under section 407 to apply to it a label in
a
                particular form;
          the person must not supply the equipment or cabling unless a
label
          in that form has been applied to the equipment or cabling.
      (2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an
offence
          punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding 100 penalty
units.

     (2A) Subsection (2) does not apply if the person has a reasonable
      excuse.
      Note:      A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to
the matter
                 in subsection (2A) (see subsection 13.3(3) of the
Criminal Code).
  (3) In this section:
      supply includes supply (including re-supply) by way of sale,
      exchange, lease, hire or hire-purchase."

I am confident that the definition of supply lets me off the hook here.
Section 2A is also comforting.

If anyone has any further thoughts about this i would like to know.

Simon