The Federal Government has called upon the ACCC to begin working with state and territory regulators to stamp out the practice of using misleading pricing information on fuel price boards.
The Assistant Treasurer, the Hon. David Bradbury said that ‘consumers rely on fuel price boards to make decisions about where and when they buy their fuel’, but stated that motorists and motoring organisations had expressed concern that ‘fuel price boards that display discounted prices more prominently than any other price can be misleading’.
These concerns had been previously raised by consumer groups and the ACCC.
In 2008 the Queensland Consumers Association recommended, in a submission to a Senate Economics Committee consideration of a national FuelWatch scheme,
“a requirement, similar to Western Australia’s, that retailers display fuel prices prominently but that [the requirement]:
- apply to all retailers not just those in designated rural locations included in the FuelWatch scheme, and
- require all retailers to display the price of all fuels sold.”
An ACCC report into the prices, costs and profits of unleaded petrol in Australia noted that ‘consumers complained about the failure of retailers to clearly display terms and conditions of offers’.
The Assistant Treasurer has now announced that he has asked the ACCC, along with state and territory regulators, to look at developing an information standard which would end misleading advertising practices on fuel price boards.
This standard would end the possibility for confusion by providing for consistent, national standards with regards to fuel price boards.
This move received strong support from the Australian Automobile Association which said that this was a very useful first step in looking at a range of measures which could provide better information and transparency to consumers.