New research on Buy Now Pay Later debts and financial abuse acknowledges the work of the Economic Abuse Reference Group and discusses how new regulation of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) products, which came into effect in June 2025, may or may not reduce the risk of BNPL-related financial abuse.
The paper Buy Now Pay Later and Its Intersection with Family Violence: Prevalence and Prevention by Vivien Chen, Jozica Kutin and Roslyn Russell, published in the UNSW Law Journal, cites with Monash University and Redfern Legal Centre in 2025. The paper quotes multiple EARG submissions and includes evidence from EARG National Coordinator Jasmine Opdam to the Parliamentary Joint Committee inquiry on financial abuse, calling on BNPL providers to introduce minimum levels of friction to protect against the weaponisation of BNPL debts by perpetrators.
This paper draws together years of consumer sector advocacy, frontline casework and submissions from EARG and its member organisations, and recognises the lived experience of victim survivors who often only discover BNPL debts in their name when their credit score has been impacted or debt collectors come calling.