The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has put telecommunications companies on notice to ensure their advertising is clear and transparent. Earlier this year the ACCC began investigating Optus, Vodafone and Telstra. The three operators advertised their mobile data plans as ‘unlimited’, but the services had speed caps on particular uses or after a certain data threshold was reached. In the ACCC’s view, these claims were not sufficiently prominent or clear for consumers; the MNOs subsequently stopped using the word unlimited in their advertising. As of 1 September 2018, penalties for contraventions of the Australian Consumer Law have increased to the greater of $10 million, three times the value of the benefit received, or where the benefit cannot be calculated, 10% of the annual turnover in the preceding 12 months.
