Door-to-door power hawkers face $1m fines
Brian Robins - September 14, 2011 - 9:16AM
A crackdown on electricity door-to-door marketers has been launched by the competition watchdog, the ACCC, which is concerned that the elderly and those with only a limited understanding of English are being targeted by some companies.
The newly appointed head of the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission, Rod Sims, said criminal and civil penalties will be sought, with fines of up to $1.1 million for each company for each transgression.
"The ACCC will not hesitate to take swift action to enforce compliance," he said at a conference held yesterday in Canberra.
Mr Sims said that in the first half of this year, the ACCC received 2000 complaints about door to door marketing by electricity companies. "That is a lot of complaints."
Mark Franklin, executive officer with the NSW Ethnic Communities Council said his organisation has been concerned about targeting of families with English as a second language by some electricity marketers for some time.
"It's been on our radar all year," he said, "particularly with migrants who came out not long after the war, who are getting old, and are reverting to their native language, along with refugee and students who are on a low income.
"Often, they think the marketer at their front door is from the government, since they present with ID, clipboards and the like. Really, the migrant needs immediate telephone access to someone they can speak to in their own language.
"We have had cases of some migrants getting themselves into financial problems by signing up for contracts at times."
Christopher Zinn of the consumer organisation Choice said: "There does need to be greater scrutiny. Consumer groups all have stories of door knockers who target particular groups, who seek signatures on contracts before they have explained all contract details, and the like."
Energy Retailers Association of Australia chief executive Cameron O'Reilly rejected the latest criticism, saying his organisation had received recently approval from the ACCC for a new voluntary code covering door-to-door sales.
"There will always be issues with this form of marketing. We have taken comprehensive action, which has already been acknowledged by the ACCC, with authorisation of our new code of conduct."
"My push back to that is: why has it taken this industry so long to react," the ACCC's Mr Sims said. "Why should you need a code in the first place?"
The ACCC is to also overhaul the way electricity prices are fixed in an attempt to stem the surge in prices, Mr Sims said.
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