Credit reporting agency, Veda, recently came under fire over its privacy practices regarding disclosure of personal information for marketing purposes. Background Veda (a subsidiary of US credit reporting giant, Equifax) collates credit information about individuals and businesses. Individuals can obtain a free Veda credit report once every 12 months (additional reports in a 12 month … Read more
The ACCC certainly wasn’t kidding when it said that it would take a good hard look at the car rental industry. You may have heard that Hertz recently gave the ACCC court enforceable undertakings in relation to its damage assessment processes (see our blog on the Hertz case). Hot on the heels of the Hertz … Read more
If you’ve ever butt heads with a car hire company over damage to a vehicle, then you’ll be very pleased with the outcome of the ACCC’s probe of Hertz’s operations. As part of its review into the practices of the car hire industry, the ACCC investigated Hertz’s car damage assessment practices, and found them wanting … Read more
The Federal Court has found Clinica Internationale Pty Ltd (Clinica) engaged in false and misleading representations and unconscionable conduct regarding training programs offered to migrants. Clinica claimed that its training programs would lead to migrants obtaining cleaning jobs, which would in turn meet the skills test to enable them to obtain permanent residency. Many of … Read more
At his annual speech to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia recently, ACCC Chairman Rod Sims outlined the Commission’s compliance and enforcement policy for 2016. The ACCC has used the CEDA event platform for the past several years to give fair warning as to the regulatory focus for the coming year. You can read … Read more
The Federal Court has ruled that the ACCC’s allegation of cartel conduct levied at the Australian Egg Corporation Limited (AECL) was ‘not proven’. What’s ‘cartel conduct’? Cartel conduct is prohibited under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (the Act). Put simply, businesses enter into a ‘cartel’ when they group together to operate in harmony for … Read more
There’s a big change coming for business-to-business agreements for the supply of goods, services, land, and financial products, and you’ve only got until November 2016 to get your affairs in order. If you are a small business, or you deal with small businesses, and use standard form T&Cs, then you need to be aware that, … Read more
Small business is in for a helping hand with the Federal Government proposing to protect small businesses from unfair terms in contracts. The Government has developed an Exposure Draft that would amend the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, under which unfair terms protection has traditionally been limited to consumers alone. What are unfair terms? An … Read more
