Competition and Consumer Act 2010

Misleading advertising attracts serious punishment from the law. Under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 all offenders will pay a serious fine and/or receive jail time. It makes no difference whether the business intended to mislead or not--it is how the conduct of the business affected the thoughts and beliefs of consumers that matters. In this case TPG mislead the public to believe that they could receive ADSL2+ broadband for $29.99 a month. But in the fine-print there was a catch that you had to pay another $30 per month for phone line rental, plus set-up fees that in some cases were not disclosed in the ads at all. The laws are put in place to stop businesses from misleading consumers and making them pay more money than they intended to. From the advertising TPG has been left with a $2 million fine and a badly dampened reputation. This case affects operations as TPG must now not only change its adverts but print corrective ads in newspapers as well as rectify any issues with those who have been mislead. The $2 million fine and cost of the court proceedings will impact on their operations budget so they will need to cut down costs on advertising, wages and everyday operations costs.