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Published by Consumer Affairs Victoria under CC BY 4.0 and republished here without change to the content. Consumer Affairs Victoria has not endorsed this site.An independent republication of open government data. No government agency has endorsed it. Read more

Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes by year

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Publisher Consumer Affairs VictoriaUpdated no longerLicence CC BY 4.0Latest 2024-12-19Rows 3Fields 8

Enforcement outcomes from Consumer Affairs Victoria, one row per kind of action with a count for each financial year from 2012-13 to 2018-19. Prosecutions and civil proceedings are counted when finalised, and enforceable undertakings by the parties who signed them.

Also called: Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes, CAV prosecutions finalised, Victorian consumer law enforcement statistics.

Before you use it
What does each row hold?
Each row is one kind of enforcement action, with the number Consumer Affairs Victoria finalised in each financial year from 2012-13 to 2018-19. The kinds are prosecutions finalised, parties to civil proceedings and parties who signed enforceable undertakings.
Is the series still updated?
The publisher's file ends at 2018-19. A new year would arrive as a new column, which would be held for review before it is published.

Made for agents

Connect your AI agent

Any agent that connects to publicdata.au/mcp can find this dataset, read its 8 fields, count and filter across all 3 rows and diff its versions. Every answer names the version and carries Consumer Affairs Victoria's attribution. No key.

Then ask it: What does Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes by year hold, and what changed in the newest version?

claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp

One command. No key, no account, no sign-up.

Download it as Excel, CSV, JSON and 6 more formats

Pick a format and a version. Excel is picked first because it opens in the tools most offices have. The URL is yours to keep. A dated version never changes.

Format
"Latest" redirects to the newest version and will change when the publisher releases again. A dated version never changes.
https://publicdata.au/d/vic-consumer-enforcement-outcomes/latest/data.xlsx
Download

In your own tools

Use it in Excel, R, Python and more

Excel and Power BI read the CSV from its address and refresh from it. The R and Python packages take any dataset on this site by its slug, so a new dataset needs no new release. The DuckDB file attaches read-only over HTTPS, and a query reads only the blocks it touches.

The dated URL in the code never changes. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-consumer-enforcement-outcomes/latest/ redirects to the newest version.

https://publicdata.au/d/vic-consumer-enforcement-outcomes/latest/data.csv

In Excel choose Data, then From Web, and paste this address. Excel keeps it, so Refresh All reads the newest version. A sheet holds about a million rows; past that, load the query to the Data Model.

What is in it

Column names are made snake_case and the publisher's original header is kept beside each one. Blank cells are null. Nothing is added, removed, ranked or summarised.

FieldTypePublisher's headerNote
type_of_enforcement_actionstringType of enforcement action
fy_2012_13integer2012-13
fy_2013_14integer2013-14
fy_2014_15integer2014-15
fy_2015_16integer2015-16
fy_2016_17integer2016-17
fy_2017_18integer2017-18
fy_2018_19integer2018-19

Download this table as a data dictionary (Excel), or read it as a Frictionless Table Schema at schema.json. The key is type_of_enforcement_action.

The first 3 rows

From the latest version, in the publisher's order, with every field. A blank cell is shown as null.

type_of_enforcement_actionfy_2012_13fy_2013_14fy_2014_15fy_2015_16fy_2016_17fy_2017_18fy_2018_19
Prosecutions finalised332421181869
Parties to civil proceedings61646657413519
Parties signed to enforceable undertakings301517112285
The first row as JSON

As it appears in data.json.

GET https://publicdata.au/d/vic-consumer-enforcement-outcomes/latest/data.json
{
  "type_of_enforcement_action": "Prosecutions finalised",
  "fy_2012_13": 33,
  "fy_2013_14": 24,
  "fy_2014_15": 21,
  "fy_2015_16": 18,
  "fy_2016_17": 18,
  "fy_2017_18": 6,
  "fy_2018_19": 9
}

Query it without downloading

The query API returns only the rows you ask for, as JSON, NDJSON or CSV, from the same typed rows as the files. It needs no key. Build a query here and run it, then copy the URL or the code into your own work.

Try rows or aggregate for this dataset. The query builder needs JavaScript.

How filters work

Each filter is field=operator.value in the query string, and every filter must match. A number or date field compares as a number or date, and a text field compares as text. Values are case-sensitive except with ilike. Prefix not. to negate a filter, as not.eq.value.

OperatorWhat it matches
eq.valueEqual to the value.
neq.valueNot equal to the value. A blank cell does not match.
gt.valueGreater than the value.
gte.valueGreater than or equal to the value.
lt.valueLess than the value.
lte.valueLess than or equal to the value.
like.*text*Matches a pattern where * stands for any run of characters. Case-sensitive.
ilike.*text*The same as like, ignoring case.
in.(a,b,c)Equal to any value in the list. A value cannot contain a comma.
is.nullBlank in the source, or suppressed by the publisher.
ParameterWhat it does
selectFields to return, comma-separated. Every field when absent.
orderfield.asc or field.desc, comma-separated. The publisher's row order when absent.
limitRows per page, 1 to 10,000. 100 when absent.
offsetRows to skip. The next URL in each answer sets it for you.
groupOn aggregate, fields to group by, comma-separated.
metricOn aggregate, count, sum.field, avg.field, min.field or max.field, comma-separated. count when absent.
formatjson, ndjson or csv. JSON carries the provenance header, and the others carry it in response headers.

Without a version the API answers from the newest loaded version, and that answer changes when the publisher releases again. Put versions/<date>/ before rows or aggregate for an answer that never changes. /api/v1/datasets/<slug>/versions lists the loaded versions. The 1 newest version is loaded; versions lists them.

The API allows 60 requests in 10 seconds from one address. Above that it answers 429 for 10 seconds with a Retry-After header, a RateLimit-Policy header and a JSON body that gives the limit. Every API answer carries the same RateLimit-Policy. A client should wait the Retry-After seconds, or read the files, which have no limit. openapi.json describes this dataset's query paths for client generators and agents.

https://publicdata.au/mcp is a remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP with the same tools, defined in the same place, so a tool added to the pages is added here too. It needs no key and no account. The row tools are held to the query API's limit of 60 queries in 10 seconds from one address, and each call is two queries because it also counts the matching rows. Add it to Claude Code with claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp, add the URL in Claude as a custom connector, or give it to any client that connects to remote MCP servers. Each queryable dataset is also a resource at https://publicdata.au/d/<slug>/fields.json, which lists its fields with their types, the publisher's descriptions, their ranges and the values they hold, so an agent can read a dataset's shape before it writes a query.

What changed

One version for every release the publisher has made since this site started following the dataset. The date is the day the file changed on the portal.

versions.json · changes.json · history.tar.zst (3.7 KB, every version's Parquet and manifest)

Questions

How do I download Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes by year as a CSV file?

Open https://publicdata.au/d/vic-consumer-enforcement-outcomes/latest/data.csv. It redirects to the newest dated version, which is https://publicdata.au/d/vic-consumer-enforcement-outcomes/v/2024-12-19/data.csv today. The same path serves Excel, JSON, Parquet, SQLite, DuckDB, NDJSON, Arrow. A dated URL never changes, so use it when the file must stay the same.

Can I open Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes by year in Excel?

Yes. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-consumer-enforcement-outcomes/v/2024-12-19/data.xlsx is a workbook with the 3 rows on a records sheet, the field list on a second sheet and the provenance on a third. The CSV also opens in Excel. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-consumer-enforcement-outcomes/v/2024-12-19/data.csv.gz is the CSV at about a tenth of the size.

What years does Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes by year cover?

The current version covers the years since 2012. Each release from Consumer Affairs Victoria becomes a new dated version here, and earlier versions stay online.

How often is Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes by year updated?

Consumer Affairs Victoria no longer updates it. This site checks the portal every week and adds a dated version when the file changes.

Can I use Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes by year commercially?

Yes. CC BY 4.0 allows commercial use, redistribution and derived works as long as the attribution is kept. The attribution string is in this page's side column and inside every file.

Is this the official source for Consumer Affairs Victoria enforcement outcomes by year?

No. The publisher is Consumer Affairs Victoria, and its page is https://discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/enforcement-outcomes. This site republishes the publisher's file without changing its content. The original sits beside every version as source.csv with its SHA-256, so the two can be compared.

What this site did to the data. Cells were typed, headers were renamed and the encoding was made UTF-8. Rows were left alone. The publisher's file sits beside every version as source.csv so the change can be checked.