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One-and-a-quarter million Australian households face home insurance affordability stress
Read More Priced Out – House Insurance Affordability
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Australia Post lost $200 million last financial year. It expects further losses unless it can “secure the necessary support required to modernise its business”.
Now, this necessary support could come in various forms, but it means one of two things: massive government subsidies to Australia Post so that it can keep delivering mail as always or fewer mail deliveries and fewer post offices.
Read More Mail Under Threat – Australia Post Warns of Losses, Price Increases, and Potential Office Closures
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Australia Post is proposing to increase its stamp prices by 25 per cent from January 2024.
This change would increase the price of delivering reserved ordinary small letters from $1.20 to $1.50, ordinary large letters up to 125 grams from $2.40 to $3.00 and ordinary large letters between 125 grams and 250 grams from $3.60 to $4.50.
Australia Post is not proposing to increase the price of concession stamps (60 cents each) or stamps for seasonal greeting cards (65 cents).
Read More ACCC Opens Submissions on Australia Post’s Proposed Price Increases
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On the 23rd of August, Treasury announced the creation of the Competition Taskforce as part of the 2 year long Competition Policy Review. The purpose of the Review and its Taskforce is to examine the current competition laws, policies and institutions, and determine reforms in those areas to further boost productivity.
Read More Competition Taskforce Established as Treasury Stresses Importance of Competition to the Economy
Consumer Protection
Almost a year after state and territory consumer ministers agreed to open consultation on options to address the gap in Australian Consumer Law (ACL) around unfair trading practices, Treasury has released a Consultation Regulation Impact Statement (CRIS) and given stakeholders 91 days to respond starting 31st August and ending 29th November 2023.
Read More Consumer Groups Advocate for Change as Consultations Open on Unfair Trading Practices
ASIC will take further enforcement action to protect Australian consumers and small businesses in an environment where scams, digitally-enabled misconduct and predatory lending practices are increasingly prevalent.
‘We are responding to key trends and emerging issues in the regulatory landscape, where there are major shifts across sustainable finance, the digital and data economy, and an ageing population.’
‘We are also closely monitoring the development and use of artificial intelligence and what this means for the businesses and markets we regulate and exploring potential uses of this and other technologies within ASIC,’ Mr Longo said.
Read More ASIC’s Corporate Plan: Focus on Protecting Vulnerable Consumers and Small Businesses in 23-24
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Deputy Chair Karen Chester said, ‘An insurance claim doesn’t have to be handled perfectly, but it must be handled well. Our claims handling review found good practices and poor practices across all six insurers. We identified five areas where insurers can and should make immediate claims handling improvements – consumer communications, project management, identifying vulnerable consumers and complaints, resourcing of claims and complaints handling’.
Read More ASIC: Insurers Can and Should Improve Claims Handling
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The ACCC has today published compliance and enforcement guidelines on the new Gas Market Code.
The Code commenced on 11 July this year with a two-month transition period for the gas industry to prepare for some of the new obligations that the Code establishes. The ACCC will begin enforcing the Code from mid-September 2023.
Read More New Gas Market Code Takes Effect
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ASIC has commenced civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against LGSS Pty Limited (Active Super) alleging misleading conduct and misrepresentations to the market relating to claims it was an ethical and responsible superannuation fund.
Read More ASIC Commences Greenwashing Case Against Active Super
Original media release from ACCC (14/08/2023), link here. The Federal Court today ordered that Dell Australia Pty Ltd pay $10 million for making false and misleading representations on its website about discount prices for add-on computer monitors. In enforcement proceedings brought by the ACCC, Dell Australia admitted that it had misled customers about the price…
Read More Dell Australia Penalised $10 million for Misleading Representations
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Due to COVID-19, all Australian airports have recorded noticeable drops in their financial performances since 2018-2019 with Sydney and Melbourne airports by far the most negatively affected with both airports profit margins dropping by 48% in 2021-2022.
Unfortunately, the data airports are required to submit to the ACCC lack the detail necessary to determine if or how much their natural monopoly is being used – something both the ACCC and airlines have raised as concerns.
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Proceedings have commenced against operator of Solve My Debt Now, Bakken Holdings Pty Ltd (Bakken). The case is brought to the Federal Court by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) over concerns of substantial consumer harm in a move that has been welcomed by consumer advocates.
Read More ASIC sues ‘Debt Vulture’ Solve My Debt Now, and Director
