23/3/2012

NSW Government cracks down on misleading petrol advertising

Nationals Member for Tweed Geoff Provest has encouraged consumers to report misleading petrol price advertising and signage to NSW Fair Trading.

Mr Provest said a Fair Trading hotline 1800 055 555 had been established and an online complaint service was available at www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au which allowed motorists to report instances where they consider they have been misled by petrol advertising at service stations.

“The hotline is open from 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday,” he said. “Online complaints can be lodged 24/7.”

Mr Provest said the hotline and complaint service was set up after Fair Trading inspectors discovered a high rate of non-compliance during an inspection of 302 NSW service stations, including 177 in regional areas.

“A quarter of the service stations visited were not displaying the full price of unleaded petrol as required by the Fair Trading Regulation, which sets out the Product Information Standard for petrol price signs,” he said.

“Many of the service stations selling unleaded fuel were found to be only displaying the usually cheaper E10 price.

“In NSW all petrol station operators are required to display the price of regular unleaded petrol and this price should be readily seen by motorists approaching the station when it is open.”

Mr Provest said Fair Trading also identified a number of breaches of the Australian Consumer Law, including stations only advertising petrol prices that applied with cash back rebates, shopper dockets, membership/voucher schemes or bait discount advertising.

“Under the Australian Consumer Law it is an offence to mislead consumers about the true cost of goods and services,” he said.

Mr Provest said Fair Trading has launched an additional compliance operation to investigate up to 60 NSW service station operators who may be engaging in unfair practices, including poor signage and obscuring the price of premium fuels.