Posted by Elizabeth Gore-Jones
on 25 January 2017
The ACCC released its 6 monthly report Small Business In Focus today for the July - December 2016 period.
On a positive note franchisee complaints have fallen from 124 franchisee enquiries in the first half of 2016 to 93 enquiries in the second half. 192 franchisee complaints were made compared to 236 complaints in the first half.
The ACCC also reports they have instituted proceedings against the Pastacup franchisor and its then director as the first action instituted by the ACCC against a franchisor under the new code. The outcome of those proceedings is yet to be seen.
On another note, if a group of competitors (which may include franchisees) wish to collectively bargain with a common supplier or customer they must first obtain the consent of the ACCC to do so. In the relevant period the ACCC allowed Council of University Directors to collectively negotiate with 103 producers, sellers and distributors and proposed to deny Property Media Group and 170 Real Estate Agents from collectively bargaining and boycotting suppliers of online and print real estate advertising including realestate.com.au on the grounds they were not convinced the proposal would result in significant public benefit amongst other things.
Scams continued to target small business and a new emerging scam took the form of an alleged senior member of the business directing changes to payment arrangements for a supplier and redirecting invoice payment to the scammer. The ACCC has introduced the "Little Black Book of Scams" as a valuable resource to help to protect Australians against scams.
Further information can be found on the ACCC website
