Door-to-door energy salesmen get slammed
Consumer laws are pretty clear that anyone who undertakes illegal doorto-door selling practices will be penalised but it looks like AGL missed the memo. Basically, if you're a salesman you have to tell people you are a salesman straight up. Anything else you tell the customer has to be accurate and not misleading.
AGL's door knockers came uninvited and claimed that they weren't selling anything. And yet, somehow they managed to tell consumers that they were being overcharged for energy and talk about the price of AGL's products.
Obviously, the only reason the door knockers were there was to sign up consumers to AGL. To make things worse, during their pitch they misled people about AGL's prices.
The Federal Court dished out a whopping penalty of $1.555 million to AGL and $200,000 to CPM, AGL's marketing company.
Shock! Extra virgin olive oil not made from extra virgins
MOI International (Australia) Pty Ltd got into trouble over its 'Mediterranean Blend' oils labelled as 'Extra Virgin Olive Oil' and '100% Olive Oil'. Turns out it wasn't made from real virgins.
According to the fine print, the oils were made up of 93% canola oil and only 7% extra virgin olive oil (or EVOO for those of us in the know). The labelling was 100% misleading and MOI paid two infringement notices totalling $20,400.
FOXTEL pays for misleading ads with free subscription
The ACCC and FOXTEL have come to an understanding, a court enforceable undertaking in fact, that everyone will receive free FOXTEL!
Well, not quite.
If you had seen FOXTEL's advertising campaign during early 2012, then you probably would've signed up for FOXTEL in the anticipation that you were about to be the owner of a brand new and free 22-inch television. The promotion was massively oversubscribed and for many, no TV ever arrived. Travesty.
The rules say that if you make a promise to consumers you have to be able to back it up.
To make up for its naughty behaviour, FOXTEL will be giving a month's subscription credit to affected customers. We're still waiting for our free TV.
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