ACCC’s Rod Sims says he will be ‘addressing poor behaviour’ by big business

John Rolfe
February 23, 2016
News Corp Australia Network
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims.
THE Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has put the top end of town on notice by revealing more of its resources are going to be devoted to tackling bad behaviour by big business.
The ACCC is also going to step up its advocacy for regulatory reform and be more open about how it polices the law.
Chairman Rod Sims will today deliver a speech revealing the commission’s priorities in 2016 in which he will say: “This year’s policy makes it clear that we are more likely to take enforcement action against larger companies ahead of smaller businesses”.
This is because the actions of big businesses have the potential to cause greater consumer harm, Mr Sims will argue.
Also, larger companies “are often seen as benchmarks for behaviour and compliance and accordingly have a disproportionate influence on market place behaviour”, a written version of Mr Sims’s speech says. “Addressing poor behaviour at these levels is important to send clear messages to the market”.
He will commit the ACCC to protecting small enterprises through new unfair contract terms laws that take effect in November and new industry codes of conduct.
Mr Sims will say the ACCC has decided to renew its efforts to crack down on large companies’ claims about warranties, plus call on big car makers and retailers to invest in “after-sales care”, following the commission’s investigation of Fiat Chrysler, which sells Jeeps.
New cars had to be “fit for purpose, free from defects and as durable as a reasonable consumer would expect”, Mr Sims’s speech notes say.
“If a vehicle fails these guarantees, a consumer will have rights against the supplier and in some cases the manufacturer, who will have to provide a remedy … these rights are not limited by a manufacturer’s warranty and blanket refusals to consider warranty claims after the expiry of a manufacturer’s warranty or solely through the strict conditions of those warranties will be of concern to us.”
The ACCC will give added attention to the agriculture sector and make “indigenous consumer protection” an “enduring priority”.
Mr Sims will also say that “in my personal view, the ACCC has not done enough competition advocacy”. So this year it will do more in areas such as regulation of monopoly infrastructure, such as power networks, rail lines, ports and water assets.
Meanwhile, the commission’s compliance and enforcement policy document, released today, says it “will be looking for opportunities in 2016 to provide greater transparency about our compliance and enforcement approaches and will look to report on these initiatives”.
Consumer Action Law Centre CEO Gerard Brody welcomed the focus on big businesses behaving badly but added “the ACCC shouldn’t forget smaller players, particularly where those are targeting vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers”.
The lobby group for large companies, the Business Council of Australia, did not comment.