Hidden fees on concert tickets will be outlawed and gyms and streaming services will have to make it easier for customers to cancel, under a national crackdown on dodgy trading practices.
The federal government is seizing on customer anger as the cost-of-living crisis bites, but the opposition is questioning whether it’s more talk and no action.
As people sign up for subscriptions to lose weight, read more or learn a language to kick off their New Year’s resolutions, experts are warning to beware before you sign up.
There are increasing subscription traps in particular, with customers stuck in gym memberships, food delivery runs and even streaming services, finding themselves being charged automatically after a free trial.
“The reality is that that’s often buried in the fine print, and most of us don’t look at the fine print,” Angus Kidman, editor at large of Finder told 9News.
Three quarters of Australians have had a negative experience trying to cancel a subscription and close to a third felt pressured into keeping a service they wanted to get out of.
“It should be easy to cancel,” Kidman said.
“You shouldn’t have to go through 20 options on the phone. You shouldn’t have to find a tiny hidden link that’s buried in the bottom of the email.”
Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chairperson of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), agrees and says the problem is “that the actual practice itself is not prohibited”.
“These changes in terms of unfair trading practices are long overdue,” Cass-Gottlieb told 9News.
The federal government is drafting new laws to crack down on these traps, as well as so called “drip pricing”, which is when you buy a concert ticket or airfare online, and suddenly extra fees and charges are added at the checkout.
“It’s deceptive, it’s misleading, it’s dishonest – it’s not yet unlawful but it will be,” Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said.
At the moment a business can only be prosecuted if a customer has been misled on a subscription.
The new laws would put the onus back on companies to make sure that lock-in contracts are clear up front.
But the federal government hasn’t committed to introducing the legislation before the election, prompting ire from the opposition.
“Right now, what we’re seeing is a government that is talking the talk and it needs to start walking the walk,” shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said.
