ACCC takes court action against 'Yellow Page' directories

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted legal proceedings in the Federal Court against two overseas companies, Yellow Page Marketing BV and Yellow Publishing Limited.

The ACCC alleges that since May 2010 the companies have misled hundreds of businesses into thinking they were dealing with the Sensis Pty Ltd Yellow Pages ® directories.

Yesterday Justice Gordon gave the ACCC leave to serve the court documents on the companies in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The ACCC was also given leave to serve the court documents through a Melbourne law firm which has acted for one of the companies.

The court also granted interim injunctions restraining the companies, which trade as 'Directories for Australia' and a variety of other names which include the term 'Yellow Page', from seeking payment from Australian small businesses.

The ACCC alleges the companies made false, misleading and deceptive representations about online directory business services, in breach of sections 52 and 53 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

The companies sent businesses unsolicited facsimiles and follow-up invoices to procure a subscription to, and payment for, their online business directories. The facsimiles and invoices contained prominent banner headings including the words 'Yellow Page' and an inverted walking fingers logo, along with an offer of a 'free' listing in Google when the offer was not free. Australian businesses which took up the offer were each charged $3096 over two years, payable one year in advance, which appeared in fine print at the bottom of the facsimile.

The ACCC is seeking:

• civil pecuniary penalties
• declarations that the companies' conduct contravened the Act
• injunctive relief
• corrective letters to affected businesses, website notices
• costs, and
• further orders to redress loss or damage suffered by those businesses by declaring as void all contracts with the companies and directing them to refund all moneys paid.

The matter was filed in the Federal Court Fast Track List in Melbourne on 4 November 2010 and is listed to return to court on 19 November 2010. A scheduling conference will be held on 17 December 2010.