The ACCC has issued infringement notices to four furniture retailers after it found they had been making false claims to their customers.
Plush – Think Sofas (Plush), Koala & Tree (trading as Koala Living); ESR Group Holdings (trading as Early Settler), and Oz Design Furniture have all been using false representations in their advertising.
According to the ACCC, the retailers claimed that consumers would save money if they purchased certain furniture items when this was not the case.
“Consumers rely on comparative pricing to find the best deal available,” ACCC commissioner, Sarah Court, says.
“If there are no genuine savings, businesses are misleading consumers.”
The retailers used advertising statements such as ‘was $2599, now $2049’, or ‘$799, save $200’, when the furniture item had never been advertised at the ‘was’ price, or was only advertised at the ‘was’ price for a short period of time.
“Using claims of false savings to induce consumers to purchase products also disadvantages competing retailers which are complying with the law.
“The ACCC has taken this enforcement action to send a strong message to retailers that they must ensure that any claimed savings are accurate and based on a ‘before’ price which has been offered for a reasonable period when using comparison advertising,” Court concludes.
