Leading retailers fined for misleading Black Friday promotions
The ACCC has levelled fines at three major retailers for allegedly making false and misleading representations about their Black Friday sales last year.
Michael Hill Jeweller, Global Retail Brands — who operate homewares business MyHouse — and Hairhouse Warehouse each paid fines of $19,800, after the consumer watchdog conducted a sweep of advertisements for last year’s Black Friday and post-Christmas sales events and found various promotions “misrepresented the size and scope of discounts being offered to consumers.”
Michael Hill’s infringing ad
The ACCC issued one infringement notice each to the three companies.
“We allege these claims misled consumers that all goods in the physical or online store were discounted, or that the discounts were greater than was actually the case,” ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said in a statement announcing the decision.
“Advertisements that talk about ‘sitewide’ or ‘storewide’ sales or promise discounts ‘off everything’ should deliver what customers expect, and not be used by retailers to hook consumers under false pretences.”
She said Australian businesses are “legally obliged to accurately describe their sale offers and should not use small point disclaimers to terms and conditions to disguise the real extent of their offers.”
Michael Hill were pinged for an online advertisement for a member event that promised ‘25% off sitewide’, despite some of the products available on its online site not being discounted as part of the sale.
“Michael Hill’s statement may have misled consumers, and contravened the Australian Consumer Law, because some of the products in its online store were not part of the sale and were not discounted,” Lowe said.
The MyHouse advert
Global Retail Brands offered “up to 60% off sitewide + extra 20% off” in a ribbon banner and large headline graphic on the MyHouse website, despite not applying the further price reduction to all purchased items. “We say this was misleading because the extra 20% discount was not available on all of its products,” Lowe said.
Hairhouse Online was fined for the statement: ‘Save 20% to 50% sitewide’ which the watchdog considered “misled consumers that all items on its website would be discounted”. The ACCC’s probe found more than a quarter of the products on its website were not included in the sale offer.
Hairhouse Warehouse also breached consumer law.
“Businesses that make false discount claims not only risk misleading consumers, they also compete unfairly against other businesses which correctly state the nature of their sales,” Lowe said.
“During the EOFY sales, retailers should be aware that we will continue to keep an eye on sales promotions to ensure consumers are not being misled, and retailers may face enforcement action if they make sales representations that contravene the Australian Consumer Law.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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