Telecommunications, Media And Technology (TMT) Law Update – Volume 36

$8,500,000 penalty for misleading comparative advertising

On 8 October 2020, the Federal Court imposed a financial penalty and issued a corrective publication order on an online and telephone comparison service which had made misleading statements regarding the price of certain energy plans: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v iSelect Limited [2020] FCA 1523. The respondent represented on its website that it would compare all of the plans available from its partner retailers in a consumer's area and recommend the most suitable or competitive plan to the consumer but in fact did not necessarily include the most competitive rate on offer. Furthermore, due to a coding error, the prices quoted to certain NSW consumers did not account for "controlled load usage" in the tariff rate, the effect being that these consumers were underquoted in relation to the total price payable for electricity plans recommended by iSelect. The conduct was held to contravene