The Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group has offered a four-week discount period on particular alcohol products after discussions with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
"The ALH Group informed the ACCC that incorrect costing of certain wine-based products had inadvertently led to consumers being over-charged", ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
From 1 July 2000, certain products such as Stoli Lemon Ruski and Sub-zero Lime were no longer classed as wine-based products but classed as spirit-type products. The ALH Group had incorrectly applied the new Wine Equalisation Tax to some configurations of these products.
The ALH Group approached the ACCC and indicated that it had incorrectly applied the WET to these products that were sold through its Action Liquor and Liquor Express bottleshops and hotels primarily in Queensland and to a minor extent in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. Once ALH Group detected the error the products were immediately removed from sale.
The ALH Group advised the ACCC that consumers had been overcharged on the products from the 1-28 July 2000 and the ACCC informed the company that a refund and discount package was necessary to compensate consumers.
The ALH Group has voluntarily offered to implement a number of remedial measures involving a substantial compensation package. This will include a full price refund for consumers who show proof of purchase of the affected products and a four-week discount period during which the affected products will be marked down by 15% of their normal retail price.
The ALH Group will also conduct a review of all its products to ensure that there are no further pricing errors.
The ACCC has also accepted court-enforceable undertakings including the refund policy and the four-week discount period.
The discount period will run from Friday (1 September) until 28 September 2000.
Inquiries about obtaining full refunds should be directed to the ALH Group on 1800 828 743 between 10 am and 5 pm.
Whilst the law does not provide 'inadvertent mistake' as an excuse, the ALH Group acted promptly and approached the ACCC in order to remedy the error. The ACCC indicated that the voluntary disclosure of the error by the ALH Group was to be encouraged.
"This is a good outcome for consumers because they can be fully compensated for the over-charging and at the same time have the opportunity to buy the same products at a 15% discounted price", Professor Fels said.
Consumers may telephone complaints to the ACCC Price Line on 1300 302 502.