Car dealer fails to include all charges in advertisement

A Western Australian motor vehicle dealer, Sken Pty Ltd, trading as Premier Suzuki, has provided court-enforceable undertakings to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to resolve the ACCC's concerns that the company had failed to include all charges applicable to the advertised price of its Suzuki Swift motor vehicles.

In an advertisement for the Suzuki Swift motor vehicle in the 29 December 2005 edition of the Mandurah Mail newspaper, Premier Suzuki failed to include dealer delivery charges that were payable in addition to the advertised purchase price.  In the ACCC's view, the dealer delivery charge omission may have contravened the consumer protection provisions of Trade Practices Act 1974.

When the matter was brought to Premier Suzuki's attention, it cooperated fully with the ACCC and immediately took action to ensure such omissions in their advertisements would not occur again.  Premier Suzuki has given court-enforceable undertakings that it will:

• in all future advertisements and marketing, disclose any dealer delivery fees that are payable to consumers, and which have not already been included in the advertised price
• publish a corrective notice in the Mandurah Mail newspaper advising consumers of the omission in its previous advertisement and
• strengthen its existing corporate trade practices compliance program to ensure similar potential breaches of the Act do not occur in the future.

"Premier Suzuki's error highlights the need for businesses to be careful when they are putting together advertising material and ensure all relevant pricing information is included", ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.

This action follows on from the circulation throughout the industry of the ACCC's Guidelines for Pricing in the Motor Vehicle Industry.

Mr Samuel said advertising in the industry was improving but, as this matter demonstrated, more work needed to be done to lift the overall standard of compliance.

"Considerable effort was made to ensure the guidelines provided simple and practical advice for those in the industry to enable them to readily comply with their obligations under the Act.

"The ACCC will continue to monitor the motor vehicle industry to ensure compliance with the Act", Mr Samuel said.