Business Pages Pty Ltd operates an online business directory. In October 2004 it sent an application form to businesses around Australia which the ACCC was concerned may have been misleading as to the cost of a standard listing on its directory. While the cost of the standard listing was $1 449.00 per year for a minimum of two years, the manner in which the application form was laid out could have led a person to incorrectly conclude that there was no charge for the standard listing. The form did not sufficiently draw the cost of the standard listing to the attention of the reader.
Business Pages has provided a section 87B undertaking which provides that the company will:
no longer use its existing application form, or a similarly laid out form, which fails to disclose prominently, and in close proximity to the service being offered, the full cost of that service to obtain customers for any online directory services they offer;
ensure any solicitations about the provision of any such online directory services disclose both prominently and in close proximity to the services being offered the full cost of that service;
send to any business which has returned a signed application form a letter detailing the concerns of the ACCC that businesses who signed the form may have been misled as to the cost of the standard listing service and advising that businesses who wish to receive the service will be required to make a positive election in writing to do so;
refund or return any monies it has received from any business which has:
returned a signed application for registration form;
made any payment in respect of that application;
notified Business Pages that it does not wish to continue with the service; or
not notified Business Pages within thirty (30) days of receipt of the letter of its intention to take up a standard listing in the Business Pages online directory
within 3 months of the acceptance of this undertaking implement a trade practices compliance program
