Australia Post 'win the thrill' campaign misled consumers: ACCC

A bill-paying advertising promotion by Australia Post misled consumers, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission believes.

'The recent 'Win the Thrill' campaign, offering a car as a main prize, confused consumers and misled them into believing that they would be in a draw for six cash prizes of $500 each, as well as the car,' ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.

'In fact, to win one of the $500 prizes one of the two bills had to be from either Citibank, AAPT Telecommunications, Sydney Water, One.Tel, GIO Australia or Optus Communications, which Australia Post nominated as 'participating companies' '.

'Additionally, the $500 prizes were in fact credits with one of the 'participating' companies' not $500 cash. 'These conditions were made in small print. The ACCC believes they significantly modified the representations made prominently on other parts of the leaflet and misled consumers.

'Australia Post has co-operated fully with the ACCC in this matter, once the concerns were made known. Their prompt co-operation assisted the Commission to resolve this matter quickly. 'The ACCC has accepted Australia Post's offer of court enforceable undertakings to: ensure all bill paying customers are eligible for the car and the six $500 prizes regardless of which bills they paid; make each of the six $500 prizes available as $500 cash prizes; provide a further six $500 cash prizes available to all bill paying customers; place corrective advertisements in newspapers; review Australia Posts Compliance Program to ensure it compliance with the new Australian Standard from Compliance Programs, AS 3806-1998; and include in Australia Post's Compliance Program independent auditing requirements, reporting and response systems and a Senior Management Trade Practices Clearance Committee trained in trade practices compliance.

The ACCC was aware that Australia Post had a compliance program in place after previous dealings and was concerned that this program was not effective in preventing this issue from arising. 'Companies with compliance programs should ensure that they remain effective and are part of everyday operations. The ACCC will continue to monitor promotions by all types of agencies - including Government - to ensure that consumers are not misled.'