Zuellig Insurance Brokers Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Zuellig Insurance Brokers Ltd ('Zuellig') is a Sydney based company that provides brokerage services.

The Commission expressed its concern that Zuellig charged the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on one-off, annual and multiple insurance cover nationwide for 20 April 2000 in breach of section 75AU of the Act, making false or misleading represenations with respect to price in breach of section 53(e) of the Act, and had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in breach of section 52 of the Act, if it had in fact charged GST on a supply made before 1 July 2000.

Zuellig agreed to provide the Commission with a section 87B Undertaking stating that it will:

1. appoint an independent auditor, approved by the Commission to:

• (a) review and report on all one off insurance cover where the date of the cover is between 1 July 1999 to 30 June 2000 to ascertain whether GST has been incorrectly applied to such policies;
• (b) review and report on all transitional contracts for annual and multiple insurance cover issued by Zuellig to ascertain whether the amount of GST applied to such policies was correctly calculated; and
• (c) pay to all customers whom the independent auditor identifies as either incorrectly charged GST or overcharged GST on their policies a full refund of the amount overcharged within two (2) weeks of the independent auditor preparing their report.

2. send a corrective notice, in a form to be approved by the Commission, to all customers who are paid a refund in accordance with (1)(c) above, apologising for the error; and

3. implement a trade practices compliance program.