ACCC warns of crackdown on new “fine print” advertising laws

New regulations that prevent companies from hiding extra fees and charges in  the fine print of advertising are now in effect, and ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel says businesses that claim they do not know about the laws will not be immune from the watchdog’s crackdown.

The “clarity in pricing” changes to the Trade Practices Act came into effect on 25 May and affect all businesses offering products and services that come with extra fees and surcharges.   

The amendments require that businesses clearly display the total cost of a product or service after all other charges and fees have been applied.

While the new regulations allow for component pricing, a business must display the pricing elements of a product or service alongside a clear total cost value. Some examples include:

• Restaurants must now clearly print the total extra charges for public holidays and weekends.
• Travel agents organising packaged holidays must now display the total cost of a package, as opposed to advertising “packages starting from $x”.
• Companies requiring a number of payments over several weeks for a product must display the final cost.
• Car rental groups advertising a rental price but also requiring a charge per kilometre driven must clearly display the full charges.
• Companies selling concert and events tickets must include any booking fee within the total price.

Samuel says that despite any complaints from businesses about lack of knowledge about the law, they “ultimately must comply”. 

“You can go so far to advise businesses, but the changes are there now, and the view is that where there is a blatant disregard we won’t just accept a first instance of someone saying ‘Oh I didn’t know the law was like that’.” 

“There has been so much exposure of this particular proposal since 2005 and that has been particularly beefed up over the last six months. We’ve written articles in newspapers, had commentary in the last three weeks, our website has contained guides to various industries, we’ve had various associations with whom we’ve communicated.”

Samuel says that the new laws will help create a level playing field between businesses.

• ACCC to crackdown on use of fine print in advertising