CHOICE March 2022

It’s clear that money will be on lots of people’s minds in 2022. Inflation has started to rise, driven by rapid growth in house and fuel prices, while wages and interest on savings are failing to keep up. We do our best to help you manage your household budget through our tips on how to manage your health insurance, how to plan for retirement, or how to find good-value appliances. But we’re aware this advice only goes so far. Some people need personalised help, especially when it comes to managing savings and investments. In the time I’ve been with CHOICE, we’ve helped to secure huge reforms to the way financial advice is provided. Most sales commissions are now banned and advisers are required to act in your best interests. We’ve also seen…

Viagogo breached consumer law, says NSW Government Online ticket reseller Viagogo has breached the Fair Trading Act and Australian Consumer Law, according to New South Wales Fair Trading. The state body says its investigation into the ticket scalping website from last year is ongoing and has issued a fresh warning to customers not to buy from the company. “When it comes to transactions between Australia-based consumers and off-shore businesses, I urge consumers to heed our warnings and refrain from doing business with companies such as Viagogo that refuse to comply with Australian law,” Minister for Fair Trading Eleni Petinos says. Since June 2018, people have lodged 510 complaints about Viagogo with Fair Trading. Recent examples of complaints were for tickets being sold at hugely inflated prices for children’s events such as The Wiggles…

In our olive oil review, p40, the following products were incorrectly named. All other details for those items were correct. We apologise for this error. To view the review online, go to choice.com.au/oliveoilreview. ● Woolworths Macro Organic Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil (was incorrectly named Woolworths Macro Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil Classic Flavour)● Carbonell Extra Virgin Olive Oil (was incorrectly named Carbonell Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil)● Moro Primero Extra Virgin Olive Oil (was incorrectly named Moro Classico 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil)● Woolworths 100% Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil (was incorrectly named Woolworths Classico 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil)● Always Fresh Extra Virgin Olive Oil (was incorrectly named Always Fresh Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil The All Rounder) In our smartphone review, p50, RRP (recommended retail price) should…

Parkside Funerals of Tasmania recently paid a $13,320 fine in a case brought by the ACCC, which alleged that the business had made false and misleading representations in its invoices to customers. As has often been the case in the funeral services industry, the misleading information related to prices. From at least February 2020 to April 2021, Parkside Funerals included a $500 ‘Estate Fee’ in its invoices to customers, saying it was for the delivery of its funeral and cremation services. But it was actually a penalty charged in advance for paying late, a dodgy tactic that CHOICE reported on in an earlier investigation of Australia’s biggest funeral services operator, Invocare. (Invocare subsequently dropped its preemptive $352 ‘Administration Fee’.) “We are concerned that ‘Estate Fee’ is a widely used term in the…

People expect to buy goods and services that work. So when they don’t work, they should easily be able to enforce their consumer guarantee rights. But businesses currently put up barriers, which can end up costing people when they’re trying to get a repair, replacement or refund for faulty goods. This is why CHOICE and our partners made a submission to the Federal Treasury as part of its consultation on improving the effectiveness of the consumer guarantee and supplier indemnification provisions in the Australian Consumer Law. In our submission, we argued that when businesses don’t give consumers the remedy to which they’re entitled, it’s often the consumers who end up paying the costs. The stories that supporters shared helped us make it clear to the Treasury that there are real-life consequences when…

In February, CHOICE made a submission to the Attorney General’s Department Review of the Privacy Act. Our recommendations to the review were underpinned by three desired outcomes. The first is to recognise the increasing value of data in the Australian economy. We want an expanded definition of ‘personal information’ that acknowledges that insights generated on consumer behaviour, sentiment and preferences are of equal use and value to traditional types of personal information, and therefore should be appropriately regulated. The second outcome we want is a digital landscape where companies (or other entities) don’t exploit so-called ‘information asymmetries’. In other words, when somebody supplies their personal information, they should expect it to be used for the express purpose of the particular good or service. They shouldn’t expect it to be used for other…