False claims attract enforceable undertaking guarantee
The Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria has accepted an enforceable undertaking from property investment company Accrue Property P/L; the company has agreed to amend information from its website that, in the view of the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria, is false or misleading.
Accrue Property P/L acknowledges that its conduct, in the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria’s view, contravened the Australian Consumer Law by:
• making false or misleading statements on its website, accrueproperty.com.au, about the quality, value or grade of its services
• falsely implying that its services had government sponsorship or other form of government approval
• implying that its services had approval from or affiliation with the National Rental Affordability Scheme, when they did not
• publishing testimonials that claimed to be from clients of Accrue Property, but were actually from clients of a related company.
Accrue Property agreed to:
• remove all statements that, in the director’s view, constituted false or misleading statements from its website and not republish them
• implement a two-year compliance program to ensure all materials it produces comply with the ACL
• review all material currently published on its website in accordance with its compliance program
• pay $5000 to the Victorian Consumer Law Fund.
These undertakings apply to Accrue Property’s conduct nationally.
The undertaking remains in force for two years.
