See ACCC release: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/service-seeking-to-pay-penalty-for-misleading-online-‘customer’-reviews
A blog relating to Internet legal issues by Professor John Swinson, University of Queensland
Showing posts with label accc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accc. Show all posts
Fake Reviews!
Online odd jobs platform Service Seeking has been fined $600,000 for falsely representing that reviews on its platform were written by customers when in fact they were written by the businesses themselves.
Facebook in Court
In a surprising move, the Australian Information Commissioner has sued Facebook in Australia over giving access to personal information of thousands of Australians to Cambridge Analytica.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-09/facebook-privacy-oaic-information-commissioner/12039642
https://www.businessnewsaus.com.au/articles/australian-information-commissioner-takes-facebook-to-court.html
"We consider the design of the Facebook platform meant that users were unable to exercise reasonable choice and control about how their personal information was disclosed," says Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-09/facebook-privacy-oaic-information-commissioner/12039642
https://www.businessnewsaus.com.au/articles/australian-information-commissioner-takes-facebook-to-court.html
"We consider the design of the Facebook platform meant that users were unable to exercise reasonable choice and control about how their personal information was disclosed," says Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk.
Another ACCC case regarding misleading consumer reviews
The ACCC has launched another case against ServiceSeeking regarding misleading online reviews of tradespeople. See story here.
This is similar to the Meriton case, discussed in posts below, regarding misleading hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.
This is similar to the Meriton case, discussed in posts below, regarding misleading hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.
Meriton found guilty of manipulating TripAdvisor Reviews
Serviced apartment and hotel operator Meriton was found to have engaged in illegal conduct by manipulating TripAdvisor reviews. The ACCC sued Meriton and won. The ACCC brought actions under s18 and the little used s34 of the Australian Consumer Law.
See judgment at: http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2017/2017fca1305
According to the judgment, Meriton manipulated TripAdvisor in two ways:
See judgment at: http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2017/2017fca1305
According to the judgment, Meriton manipulated TripAdvisor in two ways:
"The respondent (Meriton) conducts a business of offering serviced apartment accommodation at (at least) 13 properties in Queensland and New South Wales. These properties appear on the TripAdvisor website. During the period November 2014 to October 2015 (the relevant period), Meriton participated in the Review Express service offered by TripAdvisor. On a weekly basis, Meriton provided TripAdvisor with the email addresses of guests who had stayed at its properties and TripAdvisor sent email invitations to these guests to post a review. However, rather than sending TripAdvisor the email addresses of all guests who had stayed at its properties (other than those who had requested that their details not be provided), Meriton adopted the following two practices:
(a) The first practice was to add the letters “MSA” (which stand for Meriton Serviced Apartments) to the front of the email addresses of certain guests. This rendered the email address invalid. This practice was applied to guests who had made a complaint or were otherwise considered likely to have had a negative experience at a Meriton property. I will refer to this practice as the MSA-masking practice.
(b) The second practice was to withhold from TripAdvisor the email addresses of all the guests who had stayed at a property during a period of time when there had been a major service disruption (such as the lifts not working, no hot water, etc). I will refer to this practice as the bulk withholding practice."
Alleged Illegal Conduct by Apple
Apple is being sued in Australia by the ACCC in relation to the Error 53 software fault in iPhones. When this fault bricked iPhones and iPads, Apple refused to fix the problem where third parties had done prior repairs.
The latest judgment on a procedural motion is http://www.judgments.fedcourt .gov.au/judgments/Judgments/ fca/single/2017/2017fca1329
The latest judgment on a procedural motion is http://www.judgments.fedcourt
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This website has some useful links and references: http://www.epiphanysolutions.co.uk/article-index/rights-and-laws-of-the-internet/
