Many Victorian Acts, regulations and local council laws allow for the issue of infringement notices (often called "on-the-spot" fines) for offences under those enactments. Most commonly, infringement notices are issued for minor summary offences, including parking and traffic offences, public transport offences, and public order offences (such as littering or drinking in a public place). The government may decide to allow the issue of infringement notices for further offences from time to time. For example, the infringements system was expanded in July 2008 (on a trial basis) to include additional offences including shop theft, careless driving, alcohol related offences and offensive behaviour, while further offences relating to carrying knives were added in 2010. The penalty to be paid under an infringement notice is usually set by the legislation that creates the offence.

The Infringements Act 2006 (Vic) ("Infringements Act") came into effect on 1 July 2006 and regulates the infringements system in Victoria. The Infringements Act operates retrospectively and applies to all fines and infringement notices, whether issued before or after 1 July 2006.