The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's case against Telstra was adjourned today following an interim injunction ordered by the Court against Telstra that there be no further representations made to One.Tel Next Generation customers that if they transferred their business to Telstra's competitors, or failed to transfer to Telstra, or failed to transfer to Telstra by a specified date, they may be liable to pay termination fees to One.Tel.
"The ACCC welcomes the court making the interim injunction order which the Commission was seeking. This vindicates the ACCC's swift action," ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
"Any failure by Telstra to comply with this interim injunction order would be at risk of constituting contempt of court."
The history of this matter is that the ACCC wrote to Telstra on Friday 29 June putting the allegations about the representations to Telstra and seeking assurances that these representations would not be made. The ACCC's letter was not public.
Telstra advised the ACCC on Monday 2 July that it denied the behaviour was occurring but in any case had issued instructions to prevent the behaviour happening.
The ACCC produced evidence on oath to the court that the behaviour continued this week, contrary to Telstra's written advice of 2 July, at least in respect of calls made by ACCC staff to the Telstra call centre.
The ACCC notes that yesterday (Thursday) and today in the morning, Telstra has continued to publicly deny that any such representations as the ACCC alleges have been made.
The ACCC also notes that since 9 June Telstra, which has the lists of One.Tel customers, has pursued an active program of contacting them. Some 200, 000 customers are involved.
"In view of this, the ACCC believes that among other things, the interim injunction ordered by the Federal Court was required." Professor Fels said.
The ACCC will now continue with this case seeking declarations of unlawful conduct, a permanent injunction to ensure the behaviour is not repeated, an opportunity for consumers who may have been misled to rescind their new Telstra contracts without penalty, corrective advertisements and a compliance program by Telstra.
Following the ACCC's announcement of the case yesterday, a considerable number of calls have been received on the ACCC hotline (1300 302 502) by other One.Tel customers claiming similar behaviour to that alleged in the case.
There have been some recent allegations that "prosecution by media release is eroding the relationship between business and the ACCC."
Professor Fels noted that the courts have recognised that "a moderately worded, accurate news release" published by the ACCC serves a very useful purpose in ensuring that the media is not left to make its own inquiries and compile its own summaries with the risk that, by accident, inaccuracies might occur and greater harm done to defendants.
"In the ACCC's view the Public Interest nature of this matter warranted the course adopted by the ACCC in issuing a press release yesterday – clearly informing the Public including One.Tel customers what it was the ACCC was in fact doing." Said Professor Fels. "Telstra's continuing denials that it was making misleading statements to One.Tel customers made the public statement by the ACCC even more important in this case."