Telstra smacked with $102,000 fine over iPhone 6 ad; Poll says Labor would win a federal election tomorrow: Midday Roundup

The consumer watchdog has hit Telstra with a $102,000 penalty for a misleading newspaper ad promoting its iPhone 6 plan.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found the ad, which appeared in the The Age newspaper on September 27 this year, misrepresented the real cost of the plan to consumers by hiding the details in the fine print.

The ad pictured a large photo of the iPhone 6 with the price of the plan displayed as $70 per month when, in fact, consumers were also required to pay an additional $11 per month for the phone. The additional payment of $11 was only disclosed in the fine print at the bottom of the paper.

“Businesses must be careful about using attention grabbing headline prices to ensure that their advertisements do not mislead consumers about the actual price they will have to pay,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

“This is especially the case for bundled goods and services like phones and plans.”

“Advertising that is clear allows consumers to make informed purchasing decisions and improves competition as it gives other businesses the opportunity to compete fairly,” Sims added.

Labor would win a federal election tomorrow: poll

If a federal election were held tomorrow, the Australian Labor party would easily win, according to this week’s Morgan Poll.

ALP support surged to 57.5% (up 4%) this weekend and is now well ahead of the Coalition vote on 42.5% (down 4%) on a two-party preferred basis.

The lead is Labor’s biggest since early June 2014.

The poll was carried out over the past two weekends and prior to the release of the mid-year economic update and yesterday’s Sydney siege.

Shares down on open

Aussie shares have traded lower again this morning, although stocks have recovered from large falls during the morning session.

Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, said today’s trading is repeating yesterday’s results, with negative leads from Wall Street and commodity prices continuing to influence local investors.

“Across the market we saw no major surprises,” K’Nell said.

“The major lag again was BHP (-2.86%) and Rio Tinto (-1.42%). The banks were slightly softer, except for NAB (+0.22%) after announcing it would be exiting the UK market with a deal to sell £1.2 billion in high-risk commercial real estate. Woodside is also making acquisition headlines with news that it has purchased several oil and gas assets from US based Apache Corporation for $4.5 billion”.

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was down 18 points to 5168.1 points at 12.21 AEDT. On Monday, the Dow Jones closed 99.99 points lower, down 0.58% to 17180.8 points.