Western Australian Consolidated Acts

PETROLEUM PRODUCTS PRICING ACT 1983 - SECT 19

19 .         Refusal to sell goods at fixed price

        (1)         A person who has in his custody or under his control any controlled petroleum products for sale shall not refuse or fail — 

            (a)         on demand for a quantity of those controlled petroleum products; and

            (b)         on tender of payment at the maximum price fixed under this Act for that quantity of those controlled petroleum products,

                to sell those controlled petroleum products in the quantity demanded.

        Penalty: $20 000.

        (2)         In proceedings in respect of an offence against subsection (1) it is a defence to show that, on the occasion in question — 

            (a)         the accused supplied a reasonable quantity of the controlled petroleum products demanded or, after making reasonable provision for private consumption or use, had not a sufficient quantity of those controlled petroleum products in his custody or under his control to supply the quantity demanded in addition to the quantity required to satisfy — 

                  (i)         all other contracts then subsisting, under which he was obliged to supply quantities of those controlled petroleum products for consumption or use; and

                  (ii)         the ordinary requirements of his business;

            (b)         either —

                  (i)         if the offence arose out of the accused refusing or failing to supply motor fuel from a place that was a declared terminal, as defined in Part IIIA, the person who demanded to be supplied was not a reseller or a prescribed person as referred to in section 22G; or

                  (ii)         if subparagraph (i) does not apply, the accused was a wholesale trader in the controlled petroleum products demanded, and the person who demanded to be supplied was not a manufacturer or a retail trader in them or in any goods made or partly made from them;

                or

            (c)         the accused — 

                  (i)         would have had reasonable grounds for refusing or failing to supply the controlled petroleum products concerned to the person who demanded to be supplied, had those controlled petroleum products not been controlled petroleum products;

                  (ii)         was acting in accordance with a practice for the time being approved by the Commissioner;         or

                  (iii)         otherwise had reasonable cause, not contrary to the objects and purposes of this Act, for so acting.

        (3)         For the purpose of determining what is a reasonable quantity of any controlled petroleum products within the meaning of this section, regard shall be had to all the circumstances of the case, including the question whether the person who demanded to be supplied was or was not at the time of that demand carrying on business as a retail trader in the controlled petroleum products demanded, either alone or with other goods.

        [Section 19 amended by No. 72 of 1983 s. 15; No. 73 of 2000 s. 7, 13 and 14(1); No. 11 of 2001 s. 21(1); correction to reprint in Gazette 20 Sep 2002 p. 4693; No. 84 of 2004 s. 82.]