National e-bike crackdown to buck off cowboy retailers
Nick Wilson |
A nationwide crackdown on high-speed e-bikes will seek to close regulatory loopholes for dodgy retailers after years of rising accidents and injuries.
The federal government on Thursday announced it had tasked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with drafting new standards for the sale of e-micromobility devices.
They will apply to electric bikes, scooters and skateboards and are designed to prevent the sale of high-risk devices following a spike in e-bike injuries.
Assistant Competition Minister Andrew Leigh said the changes would inspire confidence in Australian consumers and send a clear message to industry.
“Nationally consistent standards will provide clearer expectations for manufacturers, retailers and consumers alike,” he said.
Regulatory enforcement varies between states and territories, without a national consumer protection approach.
The new standards aim to close that gap, but follow years of concerns over injuries and accidents, including from high-powered e-bikes.
Harold Scruby, chief executive at the Pedestrian Council of Australia, said the announcement was a welcome step forward, but long overdue.
“It is too late,” he told AAP.
“Technology is always 10 years ahead of the law … (but) we saw it coming.”
Any changes must be complemented by consequences for retailers who fail to meet compliance standards, Mr Scruby said.
“We’ve really got to clamp down on these cowboys who are selling these things to young children,” he said.
Asked whether the horse had already bolted, Mr Leigh insisted the changes complemented state-level crackdowns.
“There’s work under way through transport ministers,” he told Seven’s Sunrise program on Thursday.
“This is about what can be sold.”
E-bikes have been spruiked as an environmentally friendly, cost-affordable answer to congested city streets.
But the rollout of shared e-bike schemes and broader uptake across the nation have been clouded by rising injury and accident rates.
In 2024, NSW recorded 226 injuries related to e-bikes, which surged to 233 in the first seven months of 2025, including four deaths.
In Queensland, more than 6000 emergency department presentations were linked to e‑mobility devices between 2022 and 2025.
Queensland is among states to crackdown on illegal e-bikes, including under its police force’s Operation Yankee Surety.
Some 249 illegal bikes were seized in the operation’s first month following its launch on July 1, while riders were hit with 991 traffic infringement notices.
NSW Police and transport officers were in June granted powers to seize illegal e-bikes, to be pulverised by Transport for NSW.
The new consumer standards were proposed at a meeting of federal, state and territory consumer affairs ministers in Darwin in July.
AAP