Eight terms in the standard form contract used by JJ Richards & Sons to engage small businesses have been deemed unfair, and therefore void under Australian Consumer Law (ACL), by the Federal Court, this week. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) instituted Federal Court proceedings against waste management giant, last month. It alleged […]
Rising electricity costs over the past decade are a “drain on business productivity,” according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s inquiry into the national electricity market. The commission’s preliminary report into retail electricity pricing highlights concerns about the operation of the National Electricity Market, which pose an “electricity affordability problem” for consumers and businesses. […]
All businesses across Australia are now banned from hitting customers with excessive surcharges for using certain types of EFTPOS, Mastercard, Visa and American Express cards to make payments. The excessive surcharging ban has applied to large businesses since September last year and now extends to all businesses that are either based in Australia or use […]
When small businesses engage with large enterprises, standard form contracts often leave them with no room to negotiate. Small businesses are left with the choice of either accepting terms heavily weighted against them, or terminating a deal that would be valuable for their business. To protect small businesses from backing into a corner, the unfair […]
There has been a lot of talk about changes to credit card rewards programs in 2017. You might even have received a notification from your bank recently about how your rewards program is about to change. This is because of new interchange fee regulations that rolled out from 1 July 2017. In 2016, the Reserve […]
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) is urging small business owners to prepare themselves for the excessive payment surcharge ban that will apply to all businesses from 1 September 2017. The new law limits the amount that a business can charge customers for use of payment methods such as EFTPOS (debit and prepaid), MasterCard […]
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking legal action against an online business directory provider, alleging unconscionable conduct that resulted in numerous small businesses paying significant amounts of money for unwanted advertising. ABG Pages Pty Ltd and an individual will face the Federal Court, accused of “misleading or deceptive conduct, false or misleading […]
There’s no doubting that Influencer marketing presents a huge opportunity for businesses. With 96% of us trusting people over brands, Influencer marketing has the power to leverage word of mouth marketing at scale and sway the consumer decision process. But with such power also comes a high level of responsibility for the consumer. As Influencer […]
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Lifestyle Photographers Pty Ltd, trading as Expression Sessions. Expression Sessions sell photography packages along with associated products and operated from pop-up stores and kiosks in shopping centres around Australia between 2012 and 2014. The ACCC alleges that Expression Sessions made false or […]
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is calling for operators of accommodation businesses to voice their concerns about the online travel agency supermarket. The ACCC has launched a questionnaire in order to re-examine the level of competition in the online travel agency market following concerns over a general lack of competition. The Accommodation Association […]
