Consumer rights

ACCC welcomes reappointment of Deputy Chair Delia Rickard

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims has welcomed the Federal Government’s reappointment of Delia Rickard as Deputy Chair of the ACCC for a period of five years.  

The Government announced Delia’s reappointment today following unanimous support from the states and territories.

“Delia has made an outstanding contribution to the work of the ACCC over the past five years, particularly in relation to consumer protection,” Mr Sims said.

“Delia is a tireless advocate for consumer rights and leads the Commission’s product safety and scam disruption work.”

ACCC takes action against Ford

The ACCC has instituted proceedings against Ford Motor Company of Australia Limited (Ford) alleging that it engaged in unconscionable and misleading or deceptive conduct, and made false or misleading representations in its response to customer complaints.

The customer complaints were about Ford’s Focus, Fiesta and EcoSport vehicles supplied in Australia between 2011 and 2016, which featured a type of transmission known as PowerShift Transmission (PST).

Yoogalu and Domestic & General Services give undertakings to ACCC

The ACCC has accepted court enforceable undertakings from Domestic & General Services Pty Ltd (Domestic & General Services) and Yoogalu Pty Ltd (part of the Harvey Norman group of companies) following an industry-wide review of extended warranty selling practices.

“The ACCC has been concerned with the conduct of some retailers overstating the benefits of buying an extended warranty, when consumers have the free protection of consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL),” ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said.

ACCC takes action against Apple over alleged misleading consumer guarantee representations

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Apple Pty Limited and its US-based parent company, Apple Inc., (together, Apple) alleging that Apple made false, misleading, or deceptive representations about consumers’ rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

New technology and digital disruption bring new challenges for consumer regulator

Fast-moving disruptive technologies and anti-competitive responses to those technologies by incumbent businesses are some of the key challenges facing consumer regulators, said Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Rod Sims.

Addressing the National Consumer Congress in Melbourne today, Mr Sims highlighted the challenges in regulating rogue online traders, sophisticated scam artists, and new retail practices like ‘subscription traps’, some of which fall short of the Australian Consumer Law and many of whom are based overseas.

Valve to pay $3 million in penalties for misrepresenting gamers' consumer guarantee rights

On 23 December 2016 the Federal Court ordered Valve Corporation (Valve) to pay penalties totalling $3 million for breaching the Australian Consumer Law. Valve is one of the world’s largest online game retailers and operates the Steam game distribution platform. 

In March 2016, the Court found that Valve had breached the Australian Consumer Law by making false or misleading representations to consumers in relation to its online gaming platform, Steam.