The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today published the December 2012 quarterly report, ACCCount.
Notable achievements for the quarter include:
- Securing over $ 42 million in penalties for breaches of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010
- Responding to over 55,000 complaints and inquiries from businesses and consumers
- Commencing five new civil proceedings in the Federal Court
- Obtaining seven court enforceable undertakings
- Receiving payment of $39,600 for 6 infringement notices under the Australian Consumer Law
- Completing 56 merger reviews and issuing 6 final authorisation determinations
- Recalling over one million unsafe and faulty consumer goods. The ACCC received notifications for 116 consumer product safety recalls in the quarter and specifically managed 66 of the recalls.
“The ACCC ended 2012 achieving significant penalties against various traders for breaches of the fair trading and consumer protection provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act,” ACCC Acting Chair Delia Rickard said.
The Federal Court imposed by consent a $1 million penalty against Cotton On Kids and Cotton on Clothing after it sold unsafe children’s nightdresses and pyjamas. The penalties are the highest imposed against a company for breaches of a mandatory product safety standard. Also of note, Pepe’s Ducks was ordered to pay $375,000 for false, misleading or deceptive conduct in relation to its advertising of ‘open range’ duck products.
These judgments take to $23.78 million the total penalties awarded by the Federal Courts under the Australian Consumer Law pecuniary penalty regime.
“The ACCC commenced court action to improve consumer welfare, protect competition and put a stop to conduct which is anti-competitive or harmful to Australians,” Ms Rickard said.
This includes action taken against Dulux relating to claims about the temperature reducing capabilities of particular paint products and proceedings being instituted against 11 Harvey Norman franchisees for allegedly misrepresenting consumer rights.
Since 2006, the ACCC has been pursuing a number of airlines for alleged cartel conduct in the air cargo industry. In December 2012, penalties were awarded against several defendants including Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways. The total amount of penalties to date is $98.5 million with proceedings continuing against Air New Zealand Ltd and Garuda Indonesia.