Home topics news News News ACCC releases small business report Rhiannon Sawyer February 1, 2013 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released its Small Business In Focus Report, looking at the contact that small business had with the ACCC in 2012. With the release of this report, the ACCC have said that it is continuing its campaign to provide small business with more information regarding their rights and obligations under competition and consumer laws. The report looks at the number of enquiries and complaints that were made to the ACCC over the first half of this financial year by small businesses, with numbers decreasing from the second half of last financial year. The number of enquiries and complaints regarding franchising had increased however. Most complaints were regarding misleading conduct or false representations, with most coming from Queensland, Victoria and NSW, though as ACCC Deputy Chair Dr Michael Schaper says, not all of these are regarding the actions of small businesses.”These enquiries are usually going in one of two directions. They’re either saying what can I say to customers or, interestingly enough, it’s frequently about business to business dealing, so people saying I’ve been dealing with another business and I don’t think they’ve told me the full truth. So we’re keen to let businesses know that they’ve still got rights as well. You should feel free to ring us and find out where you stand.” Schaper added that small business should always check to see what their rights and responsibilities