Notices issued to over a hundred traders for misleading advertisements

More than 100 traders and service providers have been given notices for misleading advertisements. This was shared by the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission chief executive officer Joel Abraham who spoke about the rising numbers of businesses publishing misleading advertisements.

This was discovered through FCCC’s daily surveillance of advertisements in the media and in-stores. FCCC noted that certain advertisements being placed during business sales and promotions had elements that were misleading.

The FCCC Act 2010 states that if traders and service providers are found guilty of any offence under the Act, they can be fined from $50, 000 to $20, 000 or even face up to 10 years imprisonment or both.

“A number of traders have been noted to be repeat offenders.

“Those who continue to breach the FCCC Act are taken to task.

“In 2017, FCCC prosecuted 38 businesses and traders which included traders who made false and misleading representations.

“Close to 10 traders were fined more than $55,000 in court last year,” said Mr Abraham.

Traders have been issued notices previously by the FCCC regarding different matters such as warranty periods said Mr Abraham.

Meanwhile, FCCC is giving out notice to the businesses and service providers’ alike seeking compliance to the consumer protection laws as failure to do so may result in strict enforcement action.

Most of the sales advertisements portray that they are a ‘deal not to be missed’ by people, however, in many instances, this is not the case. For example, traders who engage in two-price advertising such as price ‘was’ and price ‘now’ indicate a good bargain or huge savings whereas in fact the price reduction is not too significant or the product or item was never sold at the ‘was’ price.

The statement further mentioned that a number of businesses have been noted to be engaging in ‘price reduction claim’ advertisements whereby they claim that the price of an item has been reduced but the normal price is not disclosed.

For instance, selling an item on special at $9.99 may be misleading if the normal price of the item is $10.00.

There are also practices of bait advertising, providing false value of a good, non-disclosure of promotion end dates and draw dates and ‘special offers’ advertisements whereby traders claim that an offer is only available for a limited period.

But in fact, it is continuously available and this has been used as misleading information provided in advertisements.

While the FCCC will continue to monitor the advertisements published in the media and in-stores, it is however, hopeful that traders and service providers will take heed of the notice given and comply accordingly.