What Australian Consumer Law says about a travel eSIM that doesn’t work

Consumer guarantees apply to digital products

The ACCC is direct about this:

“Consumers automatically receive these consumer guarantees when they buy goods and services.”

And on online purchases:

“When a consumer shops online, all the usual consumer rights apply.”

The clearest statement about digital products specifically came out of an enforcement action against Sony, where then ACCC Chair Rod Sims said:

“Consumers who buy digital products online have exactly the same rights as they would if they made the purchase at a physical store.”

A travel eSIM sits somewhere between a good and a service. The eSIM profile is software, which the Australian Consumer Law includes in its definition of goods. The data plan is a service. In practice it does not much matter which label applies, because the outcome is similar under both, and no Australian court has ruled on how to classify a travel eSIM specifically.

Our Black Friday 2026 page sets out the dates, and a Black Friday order carries a twelve-month change-of-mind window only if the profile shows no installation, activation or data use.

The guarantees that actually apply

As a service, the relevant ones are that services must be provided with due care and skill (section 60), must be reasonably fit for any purpose you told the seller about (section 61), and must be supplied within a reasonable time where no time was agreed (section 62).

As a good, they must be of acceptable quality (section 54), fit for any disclosed purpose (section 55), and match their description (section 56).

Section 54 is worth understanding because of what feeds into it. Acceptable quality is judged against the nature of the product, its price, and, importantly, any claims the seller made about it. So a plan sold as covering a specific country, running on a named network, or delivering 5G speeds has to actually do those things. Overstated marketing raises the standard the product has to meet.

Section 56 does independent work too. If a plan is sold as covering a country and it does not cover that country, that is a failure to match its description, regardless of whether anything was technically faulty.

The part that matters most: a refund policy cannot limit your rights

This is the reason to read the article.

Section 64 of the Australian Consumer Law makes any contract term void to the extent it tries to exclude, restrict or modify the consumer guarantees. Not unenforceable in some circumstances. Void.

The ACCC’s plain-English version names refund windows explicitly:

“The basic rights covered by consumer guarantees can’t be taken away by anything a business says or does. For example, a business can’t take away these basic rights by: displaying a ‘no refunds’ sign, or otherwise saying that refunds are not available at all, or not available at all after a certain number of days“

“It is against the law for businesses to mislead consumers about their rights in these ways.”

And from the remedies guidance:

“It’s illegal for businesses to rely on store policies or terms and conditions which deny these rights.”

This has been enforced against digital sellers twice, in cases that are structurally almost identical to the travel eSIM situation.

Sony, June 2020, $3.5 million penalty. The ACCC’s description:

“Sony Europe made misleading representations to four consumers who believed they had purchased faulty PlayStation games. This occurred when Sony’s customer service representatives told them over the phone Sony Europe was not required to refund the game once it had been downloaded, or if 14 days had passed since it was purchased.”

And Rod Sims:

“Consumer guarantee rights do not expire after a digital product has been downloaded and certainly do not disappear after 14 days or any other arbitrary date claimed by a game store or developer.”

Valve, $3 million, upheld by the Full Federal Court with the High Court refusing special leave in 2018. The ACCC:

“The Court held that the terms and conditions in the Steam subscriber agreements, and Steam’s refund policies, included false or misleading representations about consumers’ rights to obtain a refund for games if they were not of acceptable quality.”

Now compare that to how travel eSIM refund policies are typically written. Fourteen days or activation, whichever comes first. Refund void once the QR code is scanned. More than 99% of the data must be unused. Six months, but only if the eSIM was never activated.

None of those terms can remove a consumer guarantee. They can describe a seller’s discretionary policy, which may well be more generous than the law in some respects, but they cannot be the ceiling.

Major failure or minor failure, which decides your remedy

This is where well-meaning articles overstate, so we will be careful.

You do not automatically get a refund whenever something goes wrong. What you get depends on how bad the failure is.

A major failure with a service, per the ACCC, is one where the service:

“has either one serious problem or several smaller problems that would stop someone buying the service if they knew about them beforehand” or “can’t be used for its normal purpose, or for a specific purpose that the consumer told the seller about… and can’t easily be fixed within a [reasonable time].”

For a major failure with a service, you can cancel the contract and get a refund, or keep it at a reduced price. The choice is yours, not the seller’s. For goods, you choose between a refund and a replacement, and the ACCC is explicit that the business “[can’t] deduct an amount from a refund to take into account the use a consumer has had of the product.”

A minor failure gets a free fix first. The business chooses how to remedy it. Only if it “can’t or won’t repair or fix the problem within a [reasonable] amount of time, or at all” does your right to a refund or replacement open up.

Applied to a travel eSIM:

• The eSIM never activates at all, or there is no service in the destination it was sold for. That is a strong argument for a major failure. A reasonable person would not have bought it knowing that.
• Speeds slower than you hoped, occasional dropouts, or one country in a multi-country regional plan underperforming. More likely minor. The seller gets first go at fixing it.

We are not going to tell you every failed eSIM is a major failure, because it is not true and it will not help you if you say it to a support agent.

They cannot force store credit on you

This one comes up constantly in traveller complaints and the position is clear. From the Sony release:

“Refunds under the consumer guarantees must also be given in cash or money transfer if the consumer originally paid in one of those ways, unless the consumer chooses to receive store credit.”

The Sony declarations specifically covered offering “a refund using virtual PlayStation currency instead of money.”

So if you paid by card and the seller offers account credit, a top-up voucher or points, you can decline and ask for the money back to your card. You can accept credit if you would rather. It has to be your choice.

Is there a time limit?

Not a fixed one. The ACCC:

“There are no set rules for deciding whether a product is of acceptable quality, or how long a product should last for.”

And on manufacturer warranties:

“After the warranty expires, the consumer guarantee of acceptable quality usually still applies.”

What that means in practice is that the guarantee lasts as long as is reasonable given what the product is and what it cost. Be realistic about what that implies for travel data: a seven day plan has an inherently short reasonable life, and a complaint raised months after the trip is weak on the facts, not because a policy says so but because the guarantee itself is measured by reasonableness.

Act promptly. Delay weakens your position, even though no policy window binds you.

The overseas seller question

Most travel eSIM sellers are foreign. Holafly is Irish. Airalo operates from Singapore and is incorporated in Delaware. Saily is Nord Security, Lithuanian-founded. Ubigi is French, owned by Transatel. None of them has an Australian entity.

The law still applies. The ACCC:

“When an overseas business sells products directly to consumers in Australia, the business must follow the Australian Consumer Law, including the consumer guarantees.”

And Rod Sims, on Sony:

“No matter where in the world a company has its headquarters, if it is selling to Australian consumers, the Australian Consumer Law applies.”

A foreign law clause does not change that. Section 67 of the Australian Consumer Law provides that where a contract substitutes the law of another country, the consumer guarantee provisions apply anyway. So a term saying the contract is governed by Irish law and Irish courts does not displace your guarantees.

And now the honest half. The ACCC says this itself:

“In practice it can be difficult to get a [repair, replacement or refund] from an overseas business if there’s a problem with the product or service, and the help Australian consumer protection agencies can provide is limited.”

Having a right and being able to enforce it against a company with no Australian presence are not the same thing. That is why the practical steps below matter as much as the legal position.

One genuine exclusion worth knowing: the ACL does not cover you if the business does not officially offer its products in Australia and you went out of your way to buy from a market they do not serve here. A seller with Australian dollar pricing and Australian marketing is very clearly offering in Australia. Someone using a VPN to buy from a market not offered here is in a much weaker position.

What to actually do

1. Contact the seller first, in writing. The ACCC: “Always contact the business first to explain the problem and the outcome you want.” Say what went wrong, which guarantee it engages, and what remedy you want. Note that a seller cannot deflect you to the underlying network: the ACCC is explicit that “The business can’t refuse to help you by telling you to contact the manufacturer.”
2. Do it while you are still travelling if you can. Several eSIM sellers make their connection-failure refund route conditional on reporting the problem during the trip. That is a policy condition rather than a legal one, but satisfying it costs you nothing and removes an argument.
3. Keep evidence. The ACCC’s general advice is to keep “copies of all documents, including emails, receipts, item descriptions”. For an eSIM specifically we would keep: the order confirmation, a screenshot of the product page as it was advertised including any coverage, network or speed claims, screenshots of the failure with timestamps, your location, the full support thread, and the cost of any replacement SIM you had to buy.
4. Escalate to your state or territory fair trading body. Access Canberra, NSW Fair Trading, NT Consumer Affairs, Office of Fair Trading Queensland, Consumer and Business Services in SA, CBOS in Tasmania, Consumer Affairs Victoria, or Consumer Protection in WA.
5. Consider a chargeback, and watch its clock. A chargeback is a card scheme mechanism, not an Australian Consumer Law right, and it has its own deadlines. Consumer Affairs Victoria puts them at “45 to 120 days from the transaction date”. Contact the seller first, because a chargeback is far stronger when you can show you asked and were refused. But do not let the seller’s process run so long that you miss the window, because their timeline is not the bank’s timeline.
6. Report to the ACCC, understanding what it does. The ACCC is explicit: “We don’t resolve individual complaints” and “We don’t provide legal advice on your rights.” Reporting is worth doing because patterns drive enforcement. It is not a way to get your money back.

What about the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman?

Usually not available, and it is worth knowing why rather than assuming.

The TIO handles complaints about its scheme members, which are Australian carriers and eligible carriage service providers required to join under the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act. Most foreign travel eSIM sellers are not members, so the TIO generally cannot take the complaint.

Two qualifications. It takes two minutes to check the TIO’s public member register before assuming. And where a provider should be a member but is not, the TIO says it will take steps to have them join and then refer the complaint.

If you bought your travel data from an Australian telco, as a roaming pack rather than a third party eSIM, the TIO does cover it.

Our own position, stated plainly

Our refund policy allows a discretionary refund or exchange review within 30 days if the eSIM has not been installed, activated or used, and a case by case assessment where it has. That is our policy.

It is not the source of your rights and it is not their limit. Our policy says so in terms:

“Nothing in this policy excludes, restricts or modifies rights you may have under Australian Consumer Law. Where those rights apply, they are not limited by supplier rules, plan status, timeframes in this policy or whether an eSIM is digital.”

We would rather you knew that than found it out from a regulator. It is also, for what it is worth, the reason we are an Australian company with an Australian company number: if you have a problem with us, the ACL applies and there is somebody in Brisbane to argue with.

Questions people actually ask

Can a travel eSIM company refuse a refund because their policy says 14 days?

A policy cannot remove a consumer guarantee. Section 64 of the Australian Consumer Law makes such terms void, and the ACCC specifically names refunds being “not available at all after a certain number of days” as something a business cannot do.

Do I always get a refund if my eSIM does not work?

No. For a major failure you choose between a refund and a replacement. For a minor failure the business must fix it first, and your refund right only opens up if they cannot or will not fix it in a reasonable time.

What counts as a major failure for an eSIM?

An eSIM that never activates, or has no service in the destination it was sold for, is a strong case. Slower speeds than expected or one country underperforming in a regional plan is more likely minor.

They offered me account credit instead of my money. Do I have to accept it?

No. If you paid by card, a refund under the consumer guarantees should go back the same way, unless you choose to take credit.

The seller is in Ireland and their terms say Irish law applies. Does that matter?

The Australian Consumer Law still applies to businesses selling directly to Australian consumers, and section 67 means a foreign law clause does not displace the guarantees. Enforcing it against a company with no Australian presence is harder, which the ACCC acknowledges.

Will the ACCC get my money back?

No. The ACCC says plainly that it does not resolve individual complaints. Report the issue because it informs enforcement, then use your state fair trading body, a tribunal, or a chargeback.

Can I go to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman?

Only if the provider is a TIO scheme member, which most foreign eSIM sellers are not. Check the TIO’s public register. If you bought a roaming pack from an Australian telco instead, the TIO does cover that.

How long do I have?

There is no fixed statutory window, but the guarantee is measured by what is reasonable for that product at that price. For a short travel data plan that period is short, so act promptly.

Sources

Australian Consumer Law provisions from the compiled Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) on the Federal Register of Legislation. ACCC guidance from Consumer rights and guarantees, Repair, replace, refund, cancel, Buying online, Warranties and Where to go for consumer help. Enforcement actions: Sony, June 2020 and Valve. Chargeback guidance from Consumer Affairs Victoria. TIO membership from Join the TIO scheme and the TIO member register. All retrieved 17 August 2026.

This is general information, not legal advice. If your situation matters to you, get advice from your state or territory fair trading body or a lawyer.

Written by Lachlan, who runs The SIM Shop from Brisbane and answers the support email himself.