Rod Sims

AUSTRALIAN Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rod Sims, in a recent speech in Sydney, has made it clear that the automotive industry is well and truly on the ACCC’s agenda for the rest of 2017.

Outlining his organisation’s priorities for 2017 at a meeting of the Committee for

Economic Development of Australia, Mr Sims said: “Misleading conduct and non-compliance with consumer law are two issues that have dogged the new-car retailing industry in recent years,” he said.

“Our work in relation to new motor vehicles, both through our existing market study and current investigations, will explore the application of consumer guarantees to high-cost items that can experience a number of problems.”

Mr Sims went on to outline several specific priorities for detailed examination including:

• Consumers’ options for seeking a remedy if their new car is defective with a particular focus on the interaction between consumer guarantees, manufacturers’ warranties and dealers’ extended warranties;
• How complaints are handled by the car industry including recurring failures not resolved by repeated repairs, refusal to repair particular defects or to provide a refund or replacement for significant failures, and consumers having to engage in protracted negotiations to have issues resolved;
• Customers having difficulty enforcing their consumer guarantee rights and non-compliance by car manufacturers and dealers; and,
• The use of non-disclosure agreements in relation to the remedy provided for a defective new car.

The ACCC has several current interests in the automotive industry.

It is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into car retailing in Australia and just recently issued a draft determination rejecting a plan, backed by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and the insurance industry, to allow collusion between 16 insurance companies to cap commissions on so called ‘add-on’ insurance sold by car dealers.

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