New Zealand state-owned bank and financial services provider Kiwibank has been fined $1.5million after pleading guilty to systemic and long-running breaches of the Fair Trading Act that led to 35,000 customers being overcharged a total amount of $6.8 million.
ACCC chair Rod Sims has hailed the introduction of Australian Competition Law and the Competition and Consumer Act 10 years ago as a game changer that allowed for the ACCC and state and territory regulators to collaborate much more easily, and heralded a new era in Australian consumer protection by introducing a single national consumer law and civil penalties.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) have inked a new agreement setting out how they will work together on ensuring compliance with consumer law and their approach to the resolution of systemic issues in the telecommunications industry.
Australians could be at risk of injuries or even death from 6.6 million individual products currently under voluntary recall, with about half of the products still likely to be found in people’s homes, according to the competition regulator, the ACCC.
Australia’s competition regulator the ACCC has raised concerns over customer loyalty schemes including poor disclosure about how consumer data is used and shared, and the selling of insights from the data to other parties without consumer knowledge.
Competition law expert and former Australian Government Solicitor Stephen Ridgeway has been appointed to the ACCC as a Commissioner.
The competition watchdog, the ACCC, has warned that overseas based online retailer Digital Sourcing ApS (Digital Sourcing) is suspected of breaching Australian Consumer Law by misleading consumers and asserting a right to payment for unsolicited goods.
Digital advertising company The Community Network says it is overhauling its customer service procedures, and there was “no intent to do the wrong thing”, after it was hit with a court enforceable penalty of $230,000 as the result of an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Digital advertising services company, The Community Network, has been fined $230,000 by the Federal Court for breaching Australian Consumer Law (ACL) by engaging in “unconscionable conduct” in its dealings with one small business.
Consumer advocate Choice says 48% of the electronic retailers it ‘shadow shopped’ failed the consumer law test.
The ACCC continues to maintain a watchful eye on the comparator website industry, with the release of new consumer and industry guidance on the operation and use of comparator websites.
Tech giant Apple has been lying to consumers about its obligation to replace or repair faulty computers, iPhones, iPads and iPods, and has now agreed to offer a 24-month warranty on all its products in Australia for the first time, rather than the more limited 12-month warranty it was applying globally.
The ACCC has continued its pursuit of dodgy door-to-door sales practices, this time taking Origin Energy to court.
Federal watchdog ACCC is taking ISP Netspeed to the Federal Court over alleged breaches of consumer law.
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