Nuance Australia criticised over advertising claims

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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced today it has ruled against Nuance Group Australia and has accepted legally binding undertakings from the group over allegations of misleading advertising earlier this year by the Downtown Duty Free and City International Duty Free subsidiaries

In a statement ACCC chairman Allan Fels said today: "The ACCC alleged that City International Duty Free published an advertisement on March 24 which was misleading and deceptive by representing that consumers could get savings off particular product prices when the products had not been advertised at the higher prices for a reasonable time before the sale."

A similar claim was made for the City International Duty Free and Downtown Duty Free catalogues distributed between March 18 and April 30 this year. The ACCC said it was concerned more broadly about claims being made by both operators that products were exclusive to each store - when this was not so. "While ' was- is ' advertising can be a valuable marketing tool for businesses it must be used with care. Businesses must ensure that claimed price savings are accurate and can be substantiated," said the ACCC statement.

Nuance will undertake several measures including offering full refunds to consumers who claim they have been misled, corrective advertising and in-store notices and the development of a trade practices compliance programme.