Tag Archives: ACCC

Ombudsman Kate Carnell has welcomed the Labor party’s commitment to three key changes to legislation on unfair contract terms. Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) Ms Carnell described Labor’s announced changes to unfair contract terms as “in line with our submission to the review currently being undertaken by …

ACCC Chair Rod Sims has rejected calls to expand competition law in light of what he called the “hipster anti-trust” movement. He made the comments during a keynote address to the RBB Economics Annual Conference in Sydney last week. ‘Inadvisable and counterproductive’ Mr Sims said some commentators were calling into …

People are increasingly falling for celebrity endorsements scams, says the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), and suffering record losses. Reports to Scamwatch are up 400 per cent and losses have spiked to a shocking $142,000 so far this year. These figures come soon after Australians were found to have …

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has warned dairy processors not to mislead dairy farmers over milk prices. This follows reports of processors blaming their private-label milk contracts with supermarkets for the low prices offered to farmers. The ACCC’s ‘Dairy Inquiry’ found that almost all contracts for the supply …

Heinz could face a $10 million fine for misleading consumers over the nutritional status of a product marketed at toddlers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has requested the near-maximum fine as a deterrent to the food industry. The furore centres on the Heinz product, Shredz. They were a …

From July 1, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will start checking compliance with the Country of Origin Food Labelling Information Standard. The ACCC will carry out checks on 10,000 food products to ensure businesses are displaying the new labels correctly. All businesses, including manufacturers, processors and importers that …

Nearly 5,000 small businesses reported various issues to the ACCC last year, with the most common areas of concern being alleged misleading conduct, consumer guarantees issues and wrongly accepting payments. The ACCC took seven enforcement actions, including five for alleged breaches of the Franchising Code. It also did 29 compliance …

The Federal Court has found that health claims made by HJ Heinz Company Australia through its Little Kids Shredz product to be misleading for consumers. According to the ACCC, images and statements about Shredz products being healthy and nutritious for young children were untrue. The court found that Heinz had …

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says almost 5,000 small businesses reached out to the organisation in the second half of 2017, up from 3,700 in the preceding six months. “Alleged misleading conduct, false representations and consumer guarantees remained the top issues reported to the ACCC by business last year,” …

To alleviate bargaining-power imbalances between processors and farmers, the ACCC has recommended a mandatory code of conduct following its 12-month inquiry into the Australian dairy industry. After comprehensive analysis of the sector over decades, the ACCC has suggested a mandatory code to address bargaining-power imbalances, improve price and production signals, …