If you run a solar sales team, you have probably been told to “follow the CEC Code of Conduct” without anyone explaining what that actually means when a rep is standing in someone’s kitchen with a tablet and a quote. The Code reads like a legal document, because it is one. Nobody hands your reps a plain translation of what they can and cannot say before a customer signs.
That gap matters more now than it did a few years ago. The Approved Solar Retailer program that the Code sat inside has wound down, so a lot of operators assume the rules went with it. They did not. The sales-conduct standards the Code set are still the benchmark regulators, tribunals and customers measure you against, and the Australian Consumer Law obligations underneath the Code are fully enforceable regardless of whether you ever signed anything.
I have spent 17-plus years around the business side of this trade, including plenty of time watching sales processes that were an ACCC complaint waiting to happen. This is the practical version: what the Code requires at the point of sale, what changed in 2023, and what your reps need to have nailed before the pen hits the contract.
What the CEC Code of Conduct actually is
The Solar Retailer Code of Conduct is an industry code the Clean Energy Council developed to lift sales and service standards for residential solar. It was authorised by the ACCC, which is the important bit: an ACCC authorisation is a formal tick that the code’s provisions are allowed to operate even where they might otherwise raise competition questions. You can read the authorisation history on the ACCC’s public register, which shows the Code’s ACCC authorisation expired on 31 July 2023 when it was superseded by the New Energy Tech Consumer Code’s own authorisation (ACCC, n.d.), and the archived Code text is still published by the CEC for reference (Clean Energy Council, 2020).
First thing to clear up, because it trips people up constantly: this Code is about the retailer and the sale, not the installer on the roof. CEC accreditation for installers and designers is a separate scheme covering technical competency and install quality. The Code covers how the system is sold, quoted, financed and serviced. A business can have brilliant installers and still breach the Code at the sales desk, and the two things are judged separately.
The January 2023 wind-down, and why the Code still bites
Here is where the confusion comes from. The Approved Solar Retailer (ASR) program, the badge scheme that let compliant retailers display an approved logo, closed in January 2023, but it was not simply retired. The Clean Energy Council replaced it with the New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC), an ACCC-authorised program that carries the accreditation forward under a new name: compliant retailers now become “New Energy Tech Approved Sellers” (Clean Energy Council, n.d.). So the ASR logo and branding are gone, but a live, formal accreditation-of-retailers mechanism still exists under the NETCC.
A lot of operators heard “the program ended” and quietly filed the whole thing under “does not apply to us any more”. That is the dangerous read.
The program winding down does not repeal the law. The Code was always a restatement, dressed in industry language, of obligations that already exist under the Australian Consumer Law: no misleading conduct, no unfair pressure, proper disclosure, honest quoting, and the unsolicited-sales rules. Those obligations sit in legislation and the ACCC enforces them whether or not you ever held a badge. So the practical position today is simple. The badge did not disappear, it was replaced. The Clean Energy Council now runs the New Energy Tech Consumer Code and its Approved Seller program, an ACCC-authorised scheme that businesses can join right now, and that is the current standard you will be held to.
Pre-sale advertising: what reps can and cannot claim
Most sales trouble starts before the appointment, in how the offer is pitched. The Code’s advertising and marketing provisions line up almost exactly with the ACL prohibition on misleading or deceptive conduct, and the ACCC has been explicit that solar claims are on its radar (ACCC, n.d.). A few rules to drill into every rep:
Savings and payback claims have to be defensible. “You will pay this off in three years” or “your power bill will drop to zero” are the classic ways to end up on the wrong side of a misleading-conduct finding. If a rep quotes a payback period or a savings figure, it needs a stated basis: usage assumptions, tariff, generation estimate. A confident number with no working behind it is a liability, not a close.
Do not call STC value a government rebate. This one is mine to die on. Small-scale Technology Certificates are not a rebate. They are tradeable certificates created from a system’s deemed generation, and liable entities (the electricity retailers carrying obligations under the federal Renewable Energy Target) buy and surrender them to the Clean Energy Regulator to meet those obligations. The customer assigns their right to create the certificates to you in exchange for an up-front discount, which is why it feels like a rebate to them but legally is not one. Reps who tell customers “the government gives you $X back” are misrepresenting how the discount works. I have written a full explainer on this in why STCs are not a rebate, and it is worth putting in front of every new starter.
Identify yourself and the business, properly. The rep’s name and the trading entity behind the offer have to be clear up front. No vague “we are working with the energy provider in your area” framing that leaves the customer unsure who they are actually dealing with.
Point-of-contract: what must be in writing before they sign
The Code is prescriptive about disclosure at the moment of sale, and this is where a disciplined process pays for itself. Before a customer signs, they should have in writing:
An itemised quote showing the total price, not a monthly finance figure standing in for the real cost. The full system specification: panel make and model, inverter, quantities, and mounting. What is included and what is not, so nobody discovers the metre upgrade or the switchboard work as a surprise variation later. The finance terms in plain form if finance is involved. And clear contact details for the business, plus the process for warranty and complaints.
The reason this is a point-of-contract issue and not a nice-to-have is that a vague quote is where disputes are born. When a customer complains three months later that they were promised something the paperwork does not mention, the paperwork is what a tribunal looks at. A quote that fully specifies the system and the total cost is your best defence and, frankly, your best sales tool, because it signals you are not one of the cowboys.
Cooling-off and cancellation rights
Every rep needs to understand cooling-off cold, because getting it wrong is one of the fastest routes to an ACL breach. Under the unsolicited consumer agreement rules, a sale made at the customer’s door or otherwise not at your normal place of business carries a cooling-off period during which the customer can cancel without penalty, and there are strict rules about what you can supply and bank during that window. The ACCC sets out the door-to-door and telemarketing obligations plainly (ACCC, n.d.).
The practical failures I see again and again: reps not telling the customer about the cooling-off right at all, businesses starting work or taking large deposits during the cooling-off period, and cancellation requests getting lost because there is no clean process to receive them. None of that is optional. The right to cancel exists whether or not you were ever a Code signatory, and the deposit rules around it are real. I have covered the deposit side in more detail in what your customers’ deposit rights actually are, and the broader doorstep obligations in door-to-door solar sales compliance.
One nuance worth training on: cooling-off rights that flow from the unsolicited-sales rules apply to how the sale happened, not to whether you hold any particular accreditation. A rep who assumes “we are not doing door-knocking so cooling-off does not apply” can still trip the rules with an in-home appointment that was not genuinely requested by the customer.
What happens if you breach
This is not theoretical. In 2025 the unsolicited rooftop solar sales sector became the subject of the ACCC’s first “super complaint”, lodged by a consumer advocacy body over doorstep selling practices (ABC News, 2025; CHOICE, 2025). That is a signal about where regulatory attention is pointed. A breach of the underlying ACL provisions can lead to infringement notices, enforceable undertakings, or Federal Court proceedings and penalties, depending on severity. The reputational damage tends to arrive faster than the legal outcome.
The practical takeaway for an operator is this. Do not build your compliance around whether a badge scheme exists. Build it around the conduct standards the Code and the ACL describe, because those are enforced on their own terms. Use the Code as your training spine, keep your quotes itemised and honest, disclose cooling-off every time, and make sure your reps know the difference between a certificate assignment and a rebate.
Where CurrentFlow fits
The hard part is not knowing the rules. It is keeping a growing team aligned with them when reps work independently in the field and you cannot be at every kitchen table. As headcount grows, the odds that one rep is quoting loosely or skipping a disclosure go up, and you usually only find out when a complaint lands.
CurrentFlow is the tool I am building because I lived that problem. The idea is to give managers visibility into what reps are actually quoting and disclosing at the point of sale, so a compliance gap gets caught in the pipeline rather than in an ACCC inquiry. It is pre-launch, so I am not going to pretend it does this today. If that is a problem you recognise, it is exactly what the platform is designed to solve.
References
ABC News. (2025, April 8). Unsolicited rooftop solar sales subject to first ACCC ‘super complaint’. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-08/solar-door-to-door-accc-complaint/105094468
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (n.d.). Clean Energy Council: Solar Retailer Code of Conduct authorisations register. https://www.accc.gov.au/public-registers/authorisations-and-notifications-registers/authorisations-register/clean-energy-council-solar-retailer-code-of-conduct
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (n.d.). Solar panel systems and home batteries. https://www.accc.gov.au/business/specific-products-and-activities/solar-panel-systems-and-home-batteries
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (n.d.). Telemarketing and door-to-door sales. https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/telemarketing-and-door-to-door-sales
CHOICE. (2025). Door-to-door solar sales targeted in ‘super complaint’. https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/consumer-rights-and-advice/your-rights/articles/calc-designated-accc-complaint
Clean Energy Council. (2020). Solar Retailer Code of Conduct (November 2020). https://assets.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/documents/approved-solar-retailers/solar-retailer-code-of-conduct-november-2020.pdf
Clean Energy Council. (n.d.). Approved Solar Retailer Program. https://cleanenergycouncil.org.au/industry-programs/retailers/approved-solar-retailer-program
FAQ
Does the CEC Solar Retailer Code of Conduct still apply now that the Approved Solar Retailer program has ended?
The CEC’s Approved Solar Retailer signatory program was wound down in 2023 and replaced by the New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC), so you can no longer become an “approved” retailer under the old program, but you can apply to become an Approved Seller under the NETCC instead. The sales-conduct standards the original Code set out mirror obligations that already exist under the Australian Consumer Law, and those are enforced by the ACCC regardless of any badge. Treat the NETCC as your current compliance baseline, not the retired scheme.
Is the CEC Code the same as CEC installer accreditation?
No. Installer and designer accreditation covers technical competency and install quality on the roof. The Solar Retailer Code of Conduct covers how the system is sold, quoted, financed and serviced. A business can be strong on one and weak on the other, and they are assessed separately.
Can a rep tell a customer that STCs are a government rebate?
They should not. Small-scale Technology Certificates are tradeable certificates created from a system’s deemed generation, which liable entities buy and surrender to the Clean Energy Regulator under the Renewable Energy Target. The customer assigns their right to create them in exchange for an up-front discount. Calling it a government rebate misrepresents how the discount works and risks a misleading-conduct finding.
What are the biggest point-of-sale compliance mistakes solar reps make?
The recurring ones are quoting a payback or savings figure with no stated basis, describing STC value as a government rebate, giving a vague quote that does not itemise the total cost and full system specification, and failing to disclose cooling-off rights or taking a large deposit during the cooling-off window. Each of these maps to a real ACL obligation, so they are worth building into rep training and your quoting process.
Where can a customer complain if a solar retailer breaches these rules?
The ACCC handles conduct issues under the Australian Consumer Law, including misleading claims and door-to-door sales breaches, and state and territory consumer protection agencies also take complaints. In 2025 the sector drew the ACCC’s first “super complaint” over unsolicited selling, so regulatory attention on solar sales conduct is currently high.