Ms Clare McNamara:

I thank the Senator. The fact that there was no specific legislation to cover digital goods and services did not mean they were not covered under sale of goods and services legislation anyway. However, it was important to modernise legislation to try to meet the peculiarities of digital content and digital services. For example, one of the things we are trying to cover here is that people can sign up to a digital service and, instead of paying for that service in monetary, they supply personal data, almost as a payment. As such, it is important to try to ensure that a consumer's rights are protected where is no monetary payment being made but the payment is in the form of data. That was not necessarily covered in the existing legislation. That is not to say that consumers did not have rights under existing legislation, but it was important to try to future-proof those rights in the context of the digital world we are in. Digital content includes computer games and the famous digital platforms that offer streaming film and television services. It was about making sure that consumers are protected regardless of whether a physical payment is made or consumers are just giving access to their data by way of payment. I hope that answers the question.