Labor would raise consumer law penalties

Companies that rip off consumers would face penalties of up to $50 million under a federal Labor pledge to bring Australia in line with OECD standards.

In a statement released on Saturday, Labor said if elected in May it would raise the maximum dollar penalty for companies that break competition laws from $10 million to $50 million.

They also said they would adopt a higher standard for competition law breaches, being 30 per cent of the annual sales of the product or service relating to the infringement, multiplied by the number of years the infringement took place.

This follows an approach taken by the European Union.

Labor said "penalties must be high enough so that no company can dismiss them as the mere cost of doing business".