| No. |
Member |
Question |
Hansard page
and Hearing date or
Written questions |
Response
(Publication date)
|
| ACCC01QON |
Wilson |
CHAIR: … What is the volume of complaints related to travel? No doubt it's significant. I sent about 30 on Flight Centre alone to you, as you know.
Mr Sims: Multiply that by all the MPs and you come up with a starting position!
Ms Court: I don't know if Mr Greiss has the figures.
Mr Greiss: We've had over 10,000 complaints in relation to travel providers alone and issues relating to cancelled travel.
CHAIR: Over 10,000?
Mr Sims: Yes. We can take it on notice and give you the details of those.
Mr Gregson: Chair, I would just emphasise that, as you point out, the contracts and the circumstances are often quite different, so there are complications there. Of course, we can't interfere with contracts. But the further point I'd just note is that there have been schemes previously—state based schemes—who have had jurisdiction for travel agents. They have changed over the last few years. Worth bearing in mind as well is looking at the deregulation that has occurred with some of those schemes in the past, and that would be a useful inquiry. They're state based.
CHAIR: Understood. Can I also get a breakdown of the number of domestic complaints in comparison to international, because, of course, a lot of the people who are making international bookings may not have been able to exercise consumer rights under Australian law, as I'm sure you're familiar with. I'm mindful of time. There are a lot of things that committee members want to ask, including me.
|
Hansard p. 5
23 October 2020
|
Responses to
questions 1 - 8
(16 December 2020)
(PDF207KB)
|
| ACCC02QON |
|
Just going off COVID-19 for a moment—we can talk about your speech to the Press Club and everything else—if you had a bank, for instance, that was holding people's money and they were offering to allow people to use their money held in a bank for an internal product but wouldn't allow you to use your money for an external product, would that be considered a competition issue by the ACCC?
Mr Sims: I'm not completely sure.
Ms Court: Yes, I think so. We might need more information.
CHAIR: I'm raising this because I'm raising a comparable example, which is where we have super funds that allow you to buy their products in a competitive environment from your super but they won't allow you to buy other people's like products, so there's no choice. Would that be considered a competition issue?
Mr Sims: I will look to my left or my right.
Mr Gregson: Again we'd have to look at the circumstances, but it's possible that, if you're effectively leveraging off your position and power in one market to gain access in another, that could raise issues. But we would really need to look at the circumstances.
CHAIR: Okay. What I might do is just give you a copy. Are you following our committee's inquiry into major banks and other financial institutions?
Mr Sims: To be honest, only to some extent. I say that keeping in mind that we deal with every sector of the economy except the finance sector for consumer issues. We are involved in the finance sector for competition issues, but we deal with absolutely everything else.
CHAIR: I'm going to give you a sample of responses from super funds—most of them are industry, but some are retail as well—where they will allow consumers to buy products from themselves but when a comparable product is available from an external party, particularly in the area of financial advice, they deny access for the use of their super, including platforms.
Mr Wilson has provided the following responses from superannuation funds for this question:
• UNI99QW
• AS106QW
• CBUS102QW
• EQ99QW
• MED99QW
• BT132QW
|
Hansard pp. 5-6
23 October 2020
|
|
| ACCC03QON |
Murphy |
Ms MURPHY: … Commissioner Court, you talked about the increase in scams at the start. As my notes indicate—and I'm not trying to verbal you—the biggest issue is scams related to the early release of super scheme, and that it has been a very significant increase. I was wondering, by 'very significant' what are the numbers or percentages, and are you able to say the sort of money that has been involved, the types of those scams and how we are looking at trying to shut them down if that's possible?
Ms Court: You may not be verballing me, but I might have been slightly loose with my language. I wouldn't necessarily say that the super scams are the biggest increase. I was talking about the increase in COVID related scams…
If you would like the actual figures, I'd probably have to pass to Mr Grimwade—
Mr Grimwade: I'll probably take that on notice.
Ms Court: who will take it on notice, in the interest of time.
Ms MURPHY: I'm happy for you to take it on notice.
|
Hansard pp. 12-13
23 October 2020
|
|
| ACCC04QON |
Murphy |
Ms MURPHY: You can take any of this on notice: with the early release of super scheme, are you seeing the scams are coming predominantly from overseas, as you were talking about, or are you seeing scams in relation to that scheme coming from domestic scammers? The more we say 'scammer', the less it makes sense!
Ms Court: Of course, it's quite often hard to know where a scam originates from. It's very hard to know whether the scammer is sitting in the Adelaide suburbs or sitting in the Bulgarian suburbs. What we know is that a consumer reports through to us: 'I have lost X amount of money,' or, 'My super has been taken out without my knowledge; who's going to fix it?' or, 'What is someone going to do about that?' Again, perhaps we could take that on notice if we have that information, but I'm not sure that we do.
|
Hansard p. 13
23 October 2020
|
|
| ACCC05QON |
Murphy |
Ms MURPHY: This is more like eBay or other websites—
Mr Sims: There could be a range of sites.
Ms MURPHY: saying, 'We'll pay you for your identity.' So I was wondering whether, in terms of the scams that you've been alerted to, that was one of the components. I'd be interested in that, and, again, you can back to me on that.
Ms Court: Again, perhaps we can that on notice. I'm not aware of that. But certainly eBay, for example, is one of the platforms we have worked with very closely in relation to trying to make sure that they have the triggers and the responsibilities to remove those kinds of advertisements, for example, where we think it might be warranted because of the scam activity on them.
|
Hansard pp. 13-14
23 October 2020
|
|
| ACCC06QON |
Mulino |
Dr MULINO: … I want to ask you a couple of questions about the final report of the ACCC digital platforms inquiry, firstly, which was provided to the government in June 2019 and published in July 2019. Did staff of the then Department of Communications and the Arts seek a briefing from the ACCC around the time that report was finalised and published?
Mr Sims: I'm certain that we gave briefings to the department of communications and we gave briefings to the Department of Treasury and the Attorney-General's Department when the report was out. As soon as we were able to, because obviously we have to have the thing released by the Treasurer. Yes.
Dr MULINO: Great. Can you take on notice the timing of any briefings you provided to the Department of Communications and the Arts and other departments.
Mr Sims: Happy to take that on notice.
|
Hansard p. 19
23 October 2020
|
|
| ACCC07QON |
Mulino |
Dr MULINO: At the inquiry into lessons to be learned in relation to the Australian bushfire season 2019-20 on 12 August, Senator Ayres referred to a finding of the final report of the ACCC in that digital platforms inquiry that newspaper closures had left 21 local government areas without coverage from a single newspaper. The department was asked to provide on notice a list of local government areas that don't have any local news capability, which they did take on notice. In their written response, they didn't provide a list. What they provided in answer to that question was that the ACCC has not published a list of these local government areas. This issue was taken up again this week in estimates. Have staff from the department, which obviously has a different name now, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, contacted the ACCC this week to obtain that list?
Mr Sims: I don't know the answer to that.
Mr Gregson: I can assist you again, Dr Mulino. We're familiar with those inquiries and questions made in other forums. Yes, we have had contact with the department on those. The position that we have on that is very much the one I mentioned before. That material was obtained under compulsory notices. We're not in a position to share that, given that we didn't reference that material in our public report. Unfortunately that's a situation that we're not able to assist with. It's actually a criminal offence to provide that material.
Dr MULINO: So you're not in a position to release information in relation to the 21 local government areas?
Mr Gregson: No. But what I would note if it helps is that that has moved in terms of the facts as well. We do note that there is information on the public record elsewhere through various sources that might assist. It's not as if there isn't material out there giving similar insights.
Dr MULINO: Could you draw this committee's attention to that information?
Mr Gregson: There are various sources and it involves putting them together. There are a couple of commercial sites that do provide some of that information. Perhaps we can assist offline and give you that direction. Of course, we don't promote or endorse particular sites, but we might be able to assist in giving insights about how you can get that same information.
Dr MULINO: I fully understand that, when information is provided to the ACCC on a certain basis, that will often mean that it can't be provided publicly but obviously this is a matter of some public policy importance.
Mr Gregson: I very much understand.
Dr MULINO: There would be a range of committees of the parliament where it would be very useful to follow up with the ACCC to understand how much we might be able to gain a better appreciation of this based upon whatever information it might be that you can disclose publicly or whatever information other sources have disclosed publicly.
Mr Gregson: Understood.
|
Hansard pp. 19-20
23 October 2020
|
|
| ACCC08QON |
Simmonds |
Mr SIMMONDS: Can you give us a preview of what things you might tackle in the future. What are the key product safety issues you are getting complaints about from parents and families?
Mr Sims: My guess is the main ones we want to pick up will be following up on the priorities in that document.
Ms Court: I don't have the current trends in complaints. One of the big challenges in product safety—and you've already alluded to it, Mr Sims—is that so many of these products are coming in from overseas. In a similar way to what I outlined earlier, we are doing a lot of work on scams. We are working with the platforms in relation to having them promptly identify products that are being sold on the platform that may have a safety concern and getting those things removed immediately.
Mr SIMMONDS: Beyond current safety priorities, what are the other products that are attracting complaints? Would you take it on notice.
Ms Court: Yes.
|
Hansard pp. 23-24
23 October 2020
|
|
| ACCC09QON |
Falinski |
Mr FALINSKI: If you had participants any other sector all coming together to have common ownership of a single supplier—in this instance, proxy advice—wouldn't that give you cause for concern?
Mr Sims: It does give us cause for concern, but you've still got to meet the threshold in the act of proving that it amounts to a substantial lessening of competition, and you've got to make sure that it's in trade or commerce.
Mr FALINSKI: I understand that, so I'll leave it at this: how does any other proxy adviser compete in that market when 28 industry super funds all own one supplier of that particular service? I might just leave that as a rhetorical question. You may want to take it on notice.
Mr Sims: We'll certainly take it on notice and we'll look further into it. I understand and share your concern.
|
Hansard pp. 10 -11
24 February 2021
|
Responses to questions 9 - 13
(7 April 2021)
(PDF841KB)
|
| ACCC10QON |
Simmonds |
Mr SIMMONDS: I turn to the changes to the franchising code between car manufacturers and car dealers that came in in June 2020, because I still get feedback from my local car dealers about the disproportionate power imbalance they feel is wielded by car manufacturers. In particular, they mentioned Mercedes and Volkswagen to me. Can I get an update from you about how you're monitoring the implementation of those changes in the Franchising Code of Conduct and what trends you've seen. Have you seen a drop in complaints? Have you seen a rise in car dealers collaborating to negotiate or to resolve disputes, which I know they're allowed to do as a collective now?
Mr Grimwade: I'll try to take this question. The changes to the franchising code in June really reflected, I think, two things. One was to enable a 12-month period before termination of a franchise could be implemented, and the other provision related to commitments to make a significant investment in a particular franchise. I'm not aware of receiving any particular complaints in relation to the implementation of those provisions.
I also note that, just looking back our figures over the last six months—and the commission will be releasing a report this week, Small business in focus, which will have the statistics laid out the last six months—there has been a drop in franchising complaints generally but an increase in the number of inquiries made of the commission. But, in relation to the car dealer or auto manufacturer franchise complaints you're referring to in particular, I think I might have to take that on notice.
|
Hansard pp. 14 -15
24 February 2021
|
|
| ACCC11QON |
Murphy |
Ms MURPHY: What is the breakdown in gender in the ACCC's briefing practices?
Ms Court: I have a strong interest in that also, as does our general counsel, Wendy Peter. The legal committee that I chair—which is an internal legal committee consisting of me, Ms Peter and a range of other senior executives within the ACCC—has those figures in relation to gender diversity reported to it on a monthly basis. I don't have the figures—Mr Gregson may have them—but our rates of briefing female junior counsel may be upwards of 40 per cent now. Senior counsel is more difficult, because there are very few female senior counsel, unfortunately, that do our work. Those that do do the work—again, unfortunately from our perspective—very quickly get elevated to the bench.
So we just get a senior counsel engaged in our work and then, as I say, she is often appointed to the bench. Mr Gregson may have the precise figures, but I can assure you it's something that we as an agency look at very closely on a monthly basis.
Ms MURPHY: I'm glad to hear that. I would be interested—I don't want you to trawl back over years and years—in some of the more recent figures.
|
Hansard p. 17
24 February 2021
|
|
| ACCC12QON |
Murphy |
Ms MURPHY: I'm not accusing the ACCC of doing this, but many organisations and firms meet their gender targets by briefing a lot of women at the low-value cases and not giving them the opportunity to get not just higher-value cases but higher-profile cases which would allow them to then become senior counsel. If you have some figures, I'd be happy to have them, but I'm also happy for you to take actual figures on notice.
Mr Gregson: We will take that on notice. The only thing I would add to Ms Court's answer is that we also try to be quite proactive in the way that we support and develop those counsel. As Ms Court mentioned, it often means that they move on, but we endeavour to be quite proactive in that exercise.
Ms MURPHY: Terrific. I know the ACCC has women very high up in the litigation and investigation sections, but I would also be interested in the figures in the in-house legal team and what the breakdown is.
|
Hansard p. 17
24 February 2021
|
|
| ACCC13QW |
Wilson |
The Committee has previously provided evidence of superannuation funds allowing internal financial advice to be funded from funds, but denied external financial advisers the right to compete. The ACCC has previously advised that it would investigate these issues on the grounds of competition. Can you please advise how these investigations are progressing? |
Written |
|
| ACCC14QW |
Wilson |
At the hearing on 24 February, the ACCC noted that they had taken feedback from the travel industry regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and in response have issued revised guidelines for consumers and businesses.
a. Does the ACCC think that broader reforms are necessary following the experiences of the travel sector during COVID-19?
Attached is a paper submitted by representatives of consumers in the travel sector, Mr Adam Glezer and Mrs Jaclyn Glezer. Could the ACCC comment on the paper’s proposals.
|
Written |
(20 May 2021)
(PDF85KB) |