Removalist company fined $30,000 for allegedly faking online testimonials; Quickflix in trading halt ahead of potential acquisition: Midday Roundup

A removalist company has been ordered to pay penalties of $30,600 following allegations it fabricated customer identities in testimonials posted on its Google+ and YouTube accounts.

Citymove, a local and interstate removalist company, was found to be in breach of Australian Consumer Law by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which issued three infringement notices about the breaches.

It is the second time the company has fallen foul of the consumer watchdog, with Citymove being forced to pay $6600 in 2011 after allegedly publishing false consumer testimonials on another website it created.

In reaching the recent ruling, ACCC deputy chair Dr Michael Schaper said consumers should be able to trust that testimonials online were posted by “genuine consumers about genuine experiences” and warned other businesses against such behaviour.

“Businesses that post testimonials using fabricated customer identities risk enforcement action by the ACCC,” he said.

Quickflix trading halt pre-empts acquisition

Streaming provider Quickflix has entered a trading halt, ahead of an announcement about a potential acquisition.

Quickflix company secretary Susan Hunter said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that the directors “request an immediate trading halt in the securities of the company pending release of an update regarding a potential corporate transaction with an international party which may result in an acquisition”.

The trading halt will be in place until the start of trading on August 3 or until the announcement is made.

Commodity stocks boost sharemarket

Local shares were faring well this morning on the back of a boost in commodity stocks, analysts say.

Tristan K’Nell, head of trading at Quay Equities, said in a statement the share market began in positive territory thanks to a strong lead from Wall Street and commodity markets “having a direct impact on trade”.

“Overnight we saw Wall Street rally higher, with the US Fed Reserve still keeping their cards very close to their chest however from a pretty dull policy statement they did state improvement in employment with the market still anticipating a rate hike between September and December of this year,” he said.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was up 0.7%, rising 42.3 points to 5666.5 points at 11.55am AEST. On Wednesday, the Dow Jones closed up 0.69%, rising 121.12 points to 17751.4 points.