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Consumer Policy Research’s Centre (CPRC)’s latest report – A Day in the Life of Data – illustrates the bewildering volume and scope of data collected about consumers just as they go about their daily lives. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here, and personal information is increasingly being collected and commodified while legislation fails to keep up. Led…
Read More CPRC Research Report: A Day in the Life of Data
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Transforming the world is the aim of the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – they represent an ambitious plan to enhance peace and prosperity, eradicate poverty and protect the planet. Organizations and companies looking to contribute to the SDGs will find that standards support the three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental…
Read More UN Sustainable development goals – standards can help
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Consumers have a right to be electrically safe when they buy electrical products, despite the enormous growth in online stores. Tested and compliant products would have this RCM mark on them, giving assurance that they meet Australian standards. The recent ruling where a importer and online seller was fined $1.2 million is a stark reminder…
Read More Check the safety of electrical products – does it have this mark?
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CFA’s quarterly webinar series will continue on Friday 14th June from 2-3pm AEST. The webinar will be hosted by Gerard Brody, CFA Chair and CEO of Consumer Action Law Centre, and Gemma Mitchell, Managing Solicitor at Consumer Credit Legal Service WA. Gerard and Gemma will share reflections and insights from their recent travels to Portugal for the Consumers International Summit, which…
Read More CFA Webinar Series
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Established in 1989, National Volunteer Week (NVW) is the largest celebration of volunteers and volunteerism in Australia and provides an opportunity to highlight the role of volunteers in our community and to say thank you to the more than 6 million Australians who volunteer. Consumers Federation of Australia (CFA) depends on the volunteers who represent…
Read More National Volunteer Week 2019
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Two years after a woman was electrocuted by a submersible pump in the backyard well of a Townsville home, the importer and online seller of the pump has been fined $1.2 million for failing to meet his obligations under electrical safety laws. Zoran Kacavenda, sole director of online business the Pump Factory Pty Ltd pleaded…
Read More Importers of electrical equipment are responsible for the safety of their product
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Mobile handsets continue to be the most common way consumers are accessing the internet while the largest volume of data is downloaded over fixed lines, as shown in a new ACCC data report on internet activity. The report, for the period ending 31 December 2018, also provides information on the number of retail services in operation…
Read More New report tracks internet activity on mobile and fixed lines
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Eleven telcos have been hit with formal warnings by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for failing to tell potential new customers that they do not provide Priority Assistance (PA) services, or failing to name a telco that does. The eleven telcos are Activ8me, Aussie Broadband, Dodo, Exetel, Foxtel, MyRepublic, Skymesh, Southern Phone, Spintel, TPG, and V4 Telecom.…
Read More Telcos warned for not helping vulnerable consumers
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If a product is found to present a safety risk, it may need to be recalled. Recalling products identified as safety hazards can help prevent injuries to consumers. Recalled products may be entitled to repair, replacement or a total refund. Here is the current list of recalls. The ACCC product safety recall process involves: stopping…
Read More When a product presents a safety risk
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Australians lost almost half a billion dollars to scammers in 2018 according to the latest figures in the ACCC’s Targeting Scams report released today. “Total combined losses reported to Scamwatch and other government agencies exceeded $489 million – $149 million more than 2017,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said. “And these record losses are likely just the tip…
Read More Scams cost Australians half a billion dollars
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In late 2014, the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) received a grant from the Ecstra Foundation to create Yarnin’ Money, a financial capability program wholly developed by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In the 2014 grant round, Ecstra sought to fund projects that would: ‘work to improve the financial literacy and money…
Read More ICAN launches Yarnin’ Money Report
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Australian residential consumers and small businesses made 60,998 complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman in the last six months of 2018 (1 July 2018 to 31 December 2018). In this period, complaints about landline, mobile and internet services, decreased by 27.7 per cent compared to the same six month period in 2017. Publishing the Telecommunications…
Read More Phone and internet complaints down between July and December 2018
