Fairfax in ACCC undertaking not to say “free” when hidden charges apply

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Monday, 28 July 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! Fairfax may be the master of its own “Domain”, a real estate website that it owns, for which it promoted “free” mobile alerts that turned out to cost 55c each. Although the charge levied was via a telecommunications company and thus a third party, the ACCC has decided that this may have been misleading. Domain.com.au is a well known and popular real estate website in Australia, in competition with other real estate sites such as realestate.com.au. Given that Domain is owned by Fairfax Digital Australia and New Zealand Pty Ltd, it should come as no surprise that Fairfax uses its media empire to advertise the products and services it operates. The Domain mobile phone service enables consumers to view and search property listings on Domain.com.au from their mobile phones. There is, of course, absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, the ACCC notes that “Banner advertisements promoting the Domain mobile phone service were published across Fairfax Digital websites during February and March 2008”, and these had come under the scrutiny of the ACCC (the Australian Competition and Consumer Commision) for potentially being misleading. The ads promoted the “Domain mobile phone service” which, the ACCC says, “enables consumers to view and search property listings on Domain.com.au from their mobile phones.” Where these ads tripped up the ACCC is in offering an “optional service for consumers to receive SMS alerts of properties listed on Domain.com.au”, which the “banner advertisements for the Domain mobile service stated 'Domain Goes mobile! Find your next home on your phone for free.' and ‘Find your next home on your phone for free’.” A friend of mine hates hearing the words “for free”, always insisting something is simply “free”, but that’s a completely different story, and I only mention it to give him a giggle when he reads this story. The fact that I tell him it’s a term that’s in common English usage never seems to sway him though. Anyway, it turns out that the ACCC’s concerns centred around the “banner claim that the Domain mobile phone services were free to consumers, when in fact users would incur charges by their telecommunications provider.” Continued on page 2. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

< Next story in category		Previous story in the category >

Visitors last 30 days Suscribers

904,266 13,751