Undertaking date

Undertaking type

s.87B undertaking

Reference number

D17/60870

Section

18 and 29(1)(i), (m) and (n) of the ACL

Company or individual details

  • Name

    Domestic & General Services Pty Ltd

    ABN

    73 127 221 032

Undertaking

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accepted a court enforceable undertaking pursuant to section 87B of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 from Domestic & General Services Pty Ltd (DGSP). This follows the ACCC’s review of extended warranty selling practices and engagement with participants in the extended warranty industry.

 

Details about the company

DGSP is a company incorporated in New South Wales, Australia.

It provides administrative, claims management and other services to retailers who offer their own extended warranty products to consumers who purchase electronics, domestic appliances and white goods.


Details about the conduct

 The ACCC is concerned about marketing practices that have occurred in the extended warranty industry, including the content of extended warranty plan brochures provided to consumers at the point of sale.

Specifically, the ACCC is concerned about the following practices which have the potential to confuse or in some cases mislead consumers:

Insufficient disclosure of:

    • the degree of overlap between some contractual rights obtained by purchasing an extended warranty and the rights and remedies already available to consumers under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), in the event that goods are faulty; and

    • the contractual rights that go beyond those rights available under the consumer guarantees.

The use of representations to the effect that:

  • the extended warranty provides some benefits which may overlap with the consumer guarantees – in circumstances where those benefits do overlap;

  • extended warranty rights are additional to rights and remedies available to consumers under the ACL – in circumstances where those features overlap with those ACL rights and remedies; and

  • the price of the extended warranty does not include any cost attributable to the rights and remedies available to consumers under the ACL – in circumstances where certain costs may have been for rights that overlap with the rights and remedies already available under the consumer guarantees.

     

In response to the ACCC’s invitation to participate in the industry wide outcome, DGSP provided the ACCC with a section 87B undertaking that it will:

  • revise extended warranty brochures to include information which will allow a consumer to compare the features of the extended warranty against the rights and remedies available for free under the ACL;

  • provide ACL compliance training materials to retailers who sell extended warranties administered by DGSP; and

  • develop and implement with retailers a program for monitoring and if necessary improving retailers’ extended warranties selling practices.