Franchising remains in the line-up of priorities for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission this year.

In 2017 the body will see its enforcement teams hone in on misleading and deceptive practices, anti-competitive conduct and unfair contract terms affecting small businesses.

Chairman Rod Sims launched the ACCC’s 2017 Compliance and Enforcement policy, which details the industries and issues the competition and consumer regulator will focus on in the year ahead.

“I can foreshadow that we will have a big focus on unfair contracts in 2017, following the introduction of new laws to protect small business in 2016. What that means is that large companies can no longer have unilateral terms in their standard contracts that put small businesses at a significant disadvantage,” he said.

The policy document outlines that a continuing focus will be ensuring small business receives the protections of industry codes of conduct, including the Franchising Code.