Following legal proceedings brought by the ACCC in February 2003, the Federal Court declared that National Telecoms Group (NTG) engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct when offering its Synergy telephony package. The court also declared that NTG made false and misleading representations with respect to the price of its telephony services.
The ACCC alleged that, amongst other things, NTG represented to consumers that in accepting the Synergy telephony package they would:
pay no more or pay less than they were currently paying for telephony services;
pay only a specified additional amount more than they were currently paying to their existing telephony services providers;
be provided with a free telephone system; and
receive only one bill for their telephony services.
By consent of both parties, Justice Weinberg declared that NTG had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and made false or misleading representations in breach of sections 52 and 53(e) of the Act.
The court granted injunctions restraining NTG from making the same or similar representations to consumers in the future. In addition, NTG has provided court-enforceable undertakings to the ACCC. NTG has undertaken to:
contact customers who have complained in order to resolve their complaints; and
