ACCC Announces Priorities for 2014-2015

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently released its 2014 Compliance and Enforcement Policy, which outlines the ACCC's priority areas for the year.

New Priorities

The new priority areas identified by the ACCC include:

• Telecommunications and energy: Activity in the telecommunications and energy sectors including door-to-door selling and telemarketing, with a particular focus on savings representations;
• Drip pricing and comparator websites: Emerging consumer issues in the online marketplace, particularly drip-pricing (ie the gradual addition of fees and charges throughout the online payment process) and comparator websites (ie those websites that allow consumers to compare prices and offers by a number of companies in the relevant industry);
• Scams: The disruption of scams that rely on building deceptive relationships and which cause severe and widespread consumer or small business detriment;
• Consumer and small business contracts: Complexity and unfairness in consumer or small business contracts;
• Credence claims: Credence claims (such as large manufacturers portraying themselves as small or niche businesses to mislead consumers), particularly those with the potential to adversely impact the competitive process and small businesses;
• Carbon pricing: Misleading carbon pricing representations (ie whether prices reflect the repeal of the carbon tax);
• Australian Consumer Law: The consumer guarantees regime, particularly in the context of the sale of extended warranties (eg where consumers are misled into believing that they need to pay for rights that are already afforded to them by consumer guarantees); and
• Indigenous consumers: Consumer protection issues impacting on Indigenous consumers.

Reaffirming Ongoing Priorities

The ACCC remains committed to addressing issues of

• Cartel conduct;
• Anti-competitive agreements;
• Secondary boycotts; and
• Misuse of market power.

In a confirmation of previous years' priorities, competition and consumer issues relating to the supermarket and fuel industries remain a priority.

The ACCC will also continue to place product safety as a priority, with the focus on low-cost imported goods that are being sold by large Australian retailers.

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Australian Business Lawyers Article

ACCC March 2014 quarterly report

ACCC Compliance and Enforcement Policy