Component pricing law seminar announced
On 21 July 2009 CSP Central contributors Victor Ng and Peter Moon will be conducting a masterclass in understanding and complying with the new component pricing law.
Victor says that the seminar will explain the law as it applies to ISPs, telcos and other industries. ‘This law applies over almost all retailing in Australia,’ says Victor. ‘So every business needs to be across it.’ Victor and Peter both specialise in plain english explanations, so this will be an ideal chance for business people to learn these important new rules.
Bookings are free but places are limited. There are only so many people who can fit into the Logie-Smith Lanyon board room 
Here’s the seminar flyer.
Australia tolerates currency forging
Amazing headline ? Well, it’s true. Companies … well known companies … are manufacturing bogus Aussie dollars, and Canberra isn’t stopping it.
How is it so ? Simple. Within Australia, the exchange rate is fixed. A dollar in Perth is a dollar in Sydney.
Only the dubious end of the telco sector gets away with saying ‘A dollar is worth whatever we say it is, for the purposes of any given plan.’
3′s ‘Up yours’ to ACCC
Mobile provider 3 is shirt-fronting ACCC in its current ‘Hot Offers’ promotional brochure. Total pricing for 24 month plans throughout the document is buried in a sea of barely readable, light-coloured, small print at the foot of each page.
Under the new component pricing law that kicked in on 25 May, the single buy price of a plan like that must be ‘specified in a prominent way’. If 3′s catalogue goes anywhere near passing that test, the new law is dead.
ACCC really needs to kick off some enforcement action against retailers it considers aren’t complying with section 53C of the Trade Practices Act. It’s hard to expect CSPs to follow the spirit of the component pricing law when their competitors seem to be getting away with feint micro-print.
Why it pays to listen to ACCC warnings
You can’t say the ACCC doesn’t give fair warning.
Back in November 2008 we reported that the ACCC were getting ‘very cranky’ about premium SMS. And in March this year, ACCC supremo, Graeme Samuel, gave a direct warning to the industry about premium SMS.
Well, the ACCC has stuck to its word and launched two separate actions in the Federal Court against AMV Holdings and Clarion Marketing Australia.
FunnyTel smashes ACCC
FunnyTel’s legal and hospitality manager Chad Blake has announced the company’s total bypass of ACCC’s new component pricing law.
In a brilliant moment, Chad was being shouted at by FunnyTel CEO Steve that the company didn’t have to employ him, and every day at his desk was a favour. Steve’s a motivational speaker in his spare time.
But then Chad realised … Steve doesn’t need me, and the customers don’t need us ! Everything they buy is optional, and options don’t need to be included in the total product price, do they ??? So FunnyTel’s famous ‘Zero Heroes’ campaign was born and ACCC was smashed again by Australia’s fastest thinking telco.
‘And it’s interesting to note’, says Chad, ‘that we didn’t need to waste a single dollar on external advice. The ‘$Nuffin to pay’ campaign is proof you don’t need Bourke Street tossers to create a totally legal campaign.’
TPG gets new law a bit right !
Let’s give credit to TPG. The compliance-challenged comms co doesn’t often set a standard, but after recently breaching the new component pricing law, it has taken a reasonable shot at complying with today’s web site advert.
Sure, its math doesn’t make sense. $20 SIM plus $20 deposit does not equal $52.99. But we know what they mean … it’s the $20 SIM plus the $20 deposit plus the $12.99 for a non-contracted month that adds up to $52.99.
And the total price isn’t super-prominent, but it’s not in micro-print, and it is in a clear area of its own, and it is immediately below the headline pricing, and it’s not a big or cluttered ad, and it is in capitals. ACCC might debate whether it passes the ‘prominence’ test but by TPG’s standards, it’s a good effort.
And you know two crazy things ?
Optus monsters component pricing law
Just days after ACCC wrote to the industry demanding immediate compliance with its new component pricing law, mega-telco Optus has ignored it.
Today’s web carries a flash ad spruiking a ‘new monster value ‘yes’ $59 cap, ‘so good, it’s scary’. So is the fact that it’s an illegal advertisement.
Well, $59 is the monthly base price for the plan, so unless it’s a month-to-month plan (so that $59 would be the total cost as well as the monthly cost), the advert needs to state prominently the total contract cost.
Well, the flash banner doesn’t, and neither does the web page it links to. The web page includes total cost down the bottom and in small print. But ‘prominent’ ? No way. Optus is plainly in breach of section 53C of the Trade Practices Act.
ACCC advice doesn’t add up
Just to show that CSPs aren’t the only ones we are watching …
ACCC’s new guide to the component pricing law shows how easy it is to slip up in advertising.
Click on the sample advert to enlarge it, and you’ll find that – despite ACCC encouragement – the advertiser shouldn’t advertise a total price of $2,240. We’re all human, even the regulator.
Oh, no ! Dodo !
We admit that we’re fascinated by Dodo. Do they even know there’s a Trade Practices Act, despite being dealt with by ACCC for serious breaches ?
Take a look at the Naked DSL advert in the top left hand corner of Dodo’s home page as at 4 June 2009. In a few square inches, there are three TPA breaches.
We’ll explain what they are.
Advertising prices: ACCC prepares to kick butt
In the next step in its war on ISP / telco advertising, ACCC has now written to individual providers warning them that there’s no grace period for compliance with the new component pricing law.
‘You should review your marketing across all media including television, radio, print, billboards, posters, websites et cetera,’ says the regulator. ‘The ACCC is concerned that some telecommunications service providers are making component price representations in ways which may not comply with the recent amendments to the TPA.’
Any ISP or telco that isn’t up to speed on the new Trade Practices Act component pricing law needs to act immediately.
We can’t say we weren’t warned.