Tele Choice Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Tele Choice Pty Ltd ("Tele Choice") sells telecommunications products and services and in March 2001 offered a free bicycle to consumers who entered into a contract to purchase a mobile phone.  The bicyle failed to comply with requirements of the mandatory standard.  The ACCC reached the view that Tele Choice had contravened section 65C(1)(a) of the Trade Practices Act, 1974.

Tele Choice undertakes that it will:

• i. take steps to ensure that all the bicycles it has supplied comply with the Standard. Where a customer is located a significant distance from any of the bicycle stores contracted to modify/assemble the bicycle, it will make provision for alternative arrangements for return of the bicycle;
• ii. in any future supply of bicycles, satisfy itself, through testing by an authorised testing agency, and modification if necessary, that such bicycles comply with the Standard;
• iii. instruct the bicycle stores carrying out the modifications to the bicycle to maintain records indicating the name of the bicycle store the bicycle has been returned to, the date it was returned, the repairs or modifications carried out on the bicycle and the name and address of the owner of the bicycle. It will provide copies of such records to the ACCC within one month of the signing of this undertaking and copies of any further records thereafter as they become available;
• iv. provide the Commission with any additions or deletions to the list of bicycle stores carrying out the modifications to the bicycle. It will allow the Commission to contact the bicycle stores on the list to ascertain the effectiveness of the recall;
• v. take note of those customers who have not responded to the recall letter within two months of the commencement date of the recall and send a further letter to those customers, repeating the advice that the bicycle does not comply with the Standard and that Telechoice is prepared to make alternative arrangements for the return of the bicycle to one of the listed bicycle repairers for modification or assembly in order to ensure that it complies with the Standard. It will provide the Commission with a copy of this subsequent letter; and
• vi. within 3 months of the signing of this undertaking, develop for consideration by the Commission, a Trade Practices Compliance program.