Consumer Action Law Centre

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The Consumer Action Law Centre (Consumer Action) is an Australian community legal centre, financial counselling service and consumer policy organisation based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was formed in 2006 by the merger of the Consumer Law Centre Victoria and the Consumer Credit Legal Service and is funded jointly by Victoria Legal Aid and Consumer Affairs Victoria. Its mission is "just outcomes, for and with consumers". [1] The organisation is national in its policy and advocacy work, while its services primarily service people residing in Victoria, Australia.

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Consumer Action provides free legal advice and representation to vulnerable and disadvantaged Victorians, and is the largest specialist consumer legal practice in Australia. As well as working with Victorians directly, Consumer Action provides legal assistance and professional training to community workers who advocate on behalf of consumers.

As a nationally-recognised and influential policy and research body, Consumer Action pursues a law reform agenda across a range of important consumer issues at a governmental level, in the media, and throughout the community directly. Consumer Action is represented on a number of national and state-based regulators' consumer consultative committees, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Energy Regulator as well as a range of government, industry and community sector working groups, Ministerial roundtables, boards, consultative committees and roundtables.

Consumer Action advances the interests of low-income and vulnerable consumers, and of consumers as a whole.

Noteworthy casework and campaigns

Vocational education/VET FEE-HELP

The Centre played a leading role in uncovering the VET-FEE HELP scandals that plagued the vocational education sector in Australia from 2010-2016, [2] with CEO Gerard Brody advising the Australian Government on reforms to the scandal plagued sector. [3]

Do Not Knock

"Do Not Knock" was one of the Centre's most influential campaigns, providing Australians with stickers to halt the activities of door-to-door and unsolicited salespeople. The campaign led to an Australian Federal Court ruling [4] that found a "do not knock" sticker was a legally enforceable notice and meant significant fines for companies that ignored the notices.

Payday loans

The Centre has had long running campaigns against the payday lending industry, including a campaign to introduce a cap on the cost of payday loans [5] and casework that led to a major industry player having to notify the Australian Stock Exchange. [6]

Insurance

In 2016, the Centre launched [7] DemandARefund.com - a complaint letter generator and campaign to fight the selling of poor value Consumer Credit Insurance, Gap Insurance and Used Car Extended Warranties. The campaign followed similar scandals in the UK over Payment Protection Insurance with the Centre's own research showing Australians were being sold over $70m in "junk" Consumer Credit Insurance yearly. [8] By September 2016, Australians had generated letters complaining about over $300,000 worth of policies. [9]

Related Research Articles

Workers compensation insurance for injuries during employment, in exchange for relinquishing the right to sue the employer

Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. The trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain." One of the problems that the compensation bargain solved is the problem of employers becoming insolvent as a result of high damage awards. The system of collective liability was created to prevent that, and thus to ensure security of compensation to the workers. Individual immunity is the necessary corollary to collective liability.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is a regulatory commission of the Australian Government, under the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trade Practices Commission and the Prices Surveillance Authority to administer the Trade Practices Act 1974, which was renamed to the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 on 1 January 2011. Its mandate is to protect consumer rights, business rights and obligations, perform industry regulation, price monitoring, and prevent illegal anti-competitive behaviour.

Payday loan Small, short-term unsecured loan

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False advertising Misleading content in advertisements

False advertising is the use of false, misleading, or unproven information to advertise products to consumers. Consumers' ability to distinguish false advertisements is affected by their emotions. People with positive emotions are more sensitive to false advertisements. The advertising frequently does not disclose its source. One form of false advertising is to claim that a product has a health benefit or contains vitamins or minerals that it in fact does not. Many governments use regulations to control false advertising. A false advertisement can further be classified as deceptive if the advertiser deliberately misleads the consumer, as opposed to making an honest mistake.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic regulator. The OFT's goal was to make markets work well for consumers, ensuring vigorous competition between fair dealing businesses and prohibiting unfair practices such as rogue trading, scams, and cartels. Its role was modified and its powers changed with the Enterprise Act 2002.

Cash Converters pawnbroker

Cash Converters International Limited is an Australian retail pawnbroking company which also provides payday loans. It has international franchise operations in many areas such as the US and Canada, the Middle East, Western Europe, Southeast Asia, and New Zealand.

Mary Wooldridge Australian politician

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Lori Swanson American politician

Lori Swanson is an American lawyer who served as the Attorney General of Minnesota from 2007 to 2019. She was the first female Attorney General elected in Minnesota. In 2018, she ran for Governor of Minnesota with running mate U.S. Representative Rick Nolan finishing in third place in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary.

The Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA) is a trade association representing the payday lending industry.

Corruption in Canada Institutional corruption in the country of Canada

Transparency International's 2019 Corruption Perception Index ranks Canada as the 12th least corrupt nation out of 180 countries, a drop from 9th in 2016. However, in recent years corruption has been an increasingly large problem in government, industry and non-governmental organizations. For instance, in 2013, the World Bank blacklisted SNC-Lavalin and its subsidiaries from "bidding on its global projects under its fraud and corruption policy" due to the Padma Bridge scandal. Canada also ranks at the bottom of the bribery-fighting rankings, "with little or no enforcement of anti-bribery measures". The 2014 Ernst & Young global fraud survey found that "twenty percent of Canadian executives believe bribery and corruption are widespread in this country". According to a study by the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan, "a large proportion of Canadians see their politicians and their institutions as fundamentally corrupt".

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Payday loans in the United States Overview of payday loans

A payday loan is a small, short-term unsecured loan, "regardless of whether repayment of loans is linked to a borrower's payday." The loans are also sometimes referred to as "cash advances," though that term can also refer to cash provided against a prearranged line of credit such as a credit card. Payday advance loans rely on the consumer having previous payroll and employment records. Legislation regarding payday loans varies widely between different countries and, within the United States, between different states.

Payday loans in the United Kingdom

Payday loans in the United Kingdom are typically small value and for short periods. Payday loans is often used as a term by members of the public generically to refer to all forms of High-cost Short-term credit (HCSTC) including instalment loans, e.g. 3-9 month products, rather than just loans provided until the next pay day.

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Operation Choke Point was a 2013 initiative of the United States Department of Justice which investigated banks in the United States and the business they did with firearm dealers, payday lenders, and other companies believed to be at a high risk for fraud and money laundering.

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The Wells Fargo account fraud scandal is an ongoing controversy brought about by the creation of millions of fraudulent savings and checking accounts on behalf of Wells Fargo clients without their consent. News of the fraud became widely known in late 2016 after various regulatory bodies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), fined the company a combined US$185 million as a result of the illegal activity. The company faces additional civil and criminal suits reaching an estimated $2.7 billion by the end of 2018.

The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, also known as the Banking Royal Commission and the Hayne Royal Commission, was a royal commission established on 14 December 2017 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and report on misconduct in the banking, superannuation, and financial services industry. The establishment of the commission followed revelations in the media of a culture of greed within several Australian financial institutions. A subsequent parliamentary inquiry recommended a royal commission, noting the lack of regulatory intervention by the relevant government authorities, and later revelations that financial institutions were involved in money laundering for drug syndicates, turned a blind eye to terrorism financing, and ignored statutory reporting responsibilities and impropriety in foreign exchange trading.

References

  1. ↑ "Consumer Action Law Centre Strategic Plan - 2014 to 2017 - Consumer Action". 14 August 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  2. ↑ "Students 'being deceived' about cost and outcomes from training programs". 18 February 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  3. ↑ "Time is up for shonky VET spruikers". The Department of Education and Training. The Department of Education and Training. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  4. ↑ "Media release: Federal Court finds Do Not Knock Sign is 'an unambiguous request to leave the premises' - Consumer Action". 11 October 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "End the Payday Debt Trap | How payday loans exploit vulnerable consumers and what can be done about them". www.debttrap.org.au. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  6. ↑ "Cash Converters International Ltd (ASX:CCV) Response to CALC Press Release" . Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  7. ↑ "Bid to refund $350m of junk insurance" . Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  8. ↑ "Australians urged to fight back against junk insurance and demand over $70m in refunds - Consumer Action". 23 March 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  9. ↑ Cormack, Lucy (12 September 2016). "ASIC report finds add-on insurance products sold by car dealers are failing consumers" . Retrieved 16 September 2016.
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