The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released new figures that show COVID-19-related consumer reports make up the majority of the 109,446 complaints it received in the first 10 months of this year.
The pandemic’s impact on travel resulted in 24,210 complaints to the ACCC, an increase of 497 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Commissioner at the ACCC, Sarah Court said other industries with large increases in complaints to the ACCC included sport and recreation (up 134 per cent on the same period in 2019), fuel retailing (121 per cent), and insurance (104 per cent).
“The economic disruption from COVID-19 has led to a huge volume of varied and complex consumer law issues,” Ms Court said.
“Common misconduct we’ve received complaints about during the pandemic includes businesses misleading consumers about their right to a refund, or deducting cancellation fees from refunds when there is no contractual basis to do so.”
She said when cancellations occurred due to Government restrictions, Australians were not automatically entitled to a refund as they would be in normal circumstances under the consumer guarantees of the Australian Consumer Law.
“For the vast majority of services and events cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions, it is the terms and conditions of each individual booking that determine whether consumers are entitled to a refund or credit note,” Ms Court said.
“The ACCC has had to step in and help consumers and businesses understand the legal ramifications of cancelled services.”
She said in March, the ACCC adjusted its priorities to focus on competition and consumer issues arising from the pandemic, establishing a COVID-19 taskforce to address immediate harm to consumers and small business.
“The taskforce has primarily focused on the travel industry, and its engagement with travel businesses to date has ensured that hundreds of thousands of consumers received the remedies they were entitled to under the terms and conditions of their contract,” Ms Court said.
“We decided early on that the best way we could help consumers was to educate businesses about their legal obligations and resolve issues quickly and efficiently, rather than taking court action.”
