While COVID-19 has had disastrous effects on the Australian
economy, it has also sparked a tremendous increase in the number of
businesses manufacturing and selling personal protection and
health-related products such as hand sanitisers and face masks.
With this rise in demand and increase in competition, there seem to
be more businesses trying to get a competitive advantage by making
inaccurate, false, misleading or deceptive premium claims to
promote the alleged benefits of their products and taking advantage
of consumer desperation.
Premium claims have long been on the radar of the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and in
respect of therapeutic products, the Therapeutic Goods
Administration (TGA). While not specifically
legislated against in the Competition and Consumer Act
2010 (Cth) nor expressly set out in the Therapeutic Goods
Advertising Code (No 2) 2018 (Cth), both the ACCC and TGA have
successfully stopped businesses relying on
