Snooze Management Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Snooze Management Pty Ltd and Snooze Sleep Well Pty Ltd (‘Snooze’) are the owner and franchisor of 70 Snooze bedding retail stores across Australia.

From 6 October 2008 to 2 November 2008, Snooze ran a national “50 months Interest Free” marketing campaign whereby many products were promoted in its retail stores using comparison pricing in the ‘Was $X Now $Y’ format.

An ACCC audit of Snooze retail stores revealed that a number of the products had not been offered for sale or sold at the ‘Was’ prices for a reasonable period immediately prior to the October campaign.

Snooze admits the ‘Was’ prices were actually a reference to their own internally-set recommended retail prices, rather than the price at which their products were offered for sale or sold for a reasonable period immediately prior to the October campaign.

Snooze therefore admits that their ‘Was/Now’ pricing during their October campaign is likely to have misled or deceived consumers in breach of sections 52 and 53(e) of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

Upon being made aware of the ACCC’s concerns, Snooze have offered an Undertaking to the ACCC pursuant to section 87B of the Act that it will:

• not engage in similar conduct;
• display in-store corrective notices;
• publish an information notice in FB Magazine;
• write an apology letter to customers known to have purchased a product promoted in-store by ‘Was/Now’ pricing during their October campaign and will offer them a $50 gift voucher;
• establish and implement a trade practices compliance program; and
• write a letter to franchisees offering trade practices compliance training.