The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accepted undertakings from three manufacturers of GPS systems to stop using ‘lifetime’ claims in their advertising.
The ACCC had raised concerns that the statements were potentially false, misleading or deceptive.
ACCC Commissioner, Sarah Court said that despite the statements the companies each retained their discretion to stop providing the services before the end of the lifetime of the device in certain circumstances.
“The ACCC considered these limitations were not communicated to consumers in a prominent way,” Ms Court said.
“We believe the statements about ‘lifetime’ services made by these GPS manufacturers were inconsistent with what consumers would understand ‘lifetime’ to mean.”
She said consumers would have rightly expected to receive those services for the lifetime of the device, without the manufacturer being able to unilaterally terminate the commitment.
“Businesses must not deceive or mislead consumers in advertising, whether through small print, or by using ill-defined, broad terms like ‘lifetime’, and they should take care to use terms that match the understanding of consumers,” Ms Court said.
“We also encourage consumers to invoke their consumer rights if they believe they have been misled or are not getting what they paid for.”
The companies involved, TomTom, Navman and Garmin are three of the biggest GPS manufacturers in Australia.
