JB Hi-Fi Group Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

JB Hi-Fi Group Pty Ltd (JB Hi-Fi) is a retailer that supplies a wide range of products, including mobile phones, televisions, DVD recorders, computers, iPod players, home theatre products, music, games, car sound, digital cameras, printers and accessories.

Since June 2007, JB Hi-Fi entered the mobile consumer electronic and telecommunications market and supplied mobile phones and accessories in all its 98 stores around Australia.

In June 2008, a customer purchased what was represented to her as being a new Nokia mobile phone for $80 from the JB Hi-Fi store in Kotara Westfield in NSW. The customer found names and video clips on the mobile phone which indicated it was not new.

The mobile phone was returned to the Kotara Westfield store and it was replaced with a second mobile phone.

The customer found that the second mobile phone also contained contact details of a list of persons which again indicated that the mobile phone was not new.

During the period from 1 January 2008 to 28 August 2008, the Kotara Westfield store received 39 mobile phone units which were returned as faulty.

The ACCC considers that, by selling the returned mobile phones as new when this was not the case, JB Hi-Fi has engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct in breach of sections 52 and 53(b) of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (TPA).

JB Hi-Fi has provided the ACCC with a court enforceable undertaking that it will:

• not make any representation to the effect that the mobile phones it supplies are new when this was not the case;
• publish a corrective notice to be displayed in the Kotara Westfield store for 8 weeks offering either a refund or a replacement to affected customers;
• publish a corrective notice in the Newcastle Post newspaper for 8 weeks offering either a refund or a replacement to affected customers; and
• extend its existing trade practices compliance program to cover mobile phones.