Media companies, ad agencies and marketers need to be on alert. ACCC chairman Rod Sims – two years into his job – is sharpening his teeth on misleading advertising and labelling claims and is back on the case of the supermarket chains.
In July the ACCC was successful in the Federal Court forcing Hewlett-Packard to pay $3 million for distributing misleading product warranty claims.
Apple was hit last year with a $2.25 million fine for misleading iPad advertisements and the ACCC is on the case of Coles for its “baked in store” bread claims when the dough was made and par-baked in Belgium.
“The idea that a regulator should be seen and not heard, which is what some people would like us to be, is not right,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald last week.
