Nearly 5,000 small businesses reported various issues to the ACCC last year, with the most common areas of concern being alleged misleading conduct, consumer guarantees and wrongly accepting payments.
The ACCC took seven enforcement actions, including five for alleged breaches of the franchising code. It also carried out 29 compliance checks to ensure adherence with the franchising, horticulture and food-and-grocery industry codes.
The ACCC last week launched its ‘Small Business 2017 Snapshot’, an overview of its activities within the small-business sector last year.
“Small Business 2017 Snapshot gives a good overview of the issues the sector is raising with us, and the concerns that are likely to guide our activities throughout this current year,” ACCC Deputy Chair Dr Michael Schaper said.
“We worked hard in 2017 to protect small businesses to ensure they’re not being unfairly treated, with a number of important firsts. We secured $177,000 in penalties for misconduct towards small businesses, including the first court-ordered penalties for breaches of the franchising code.”
“We also took our first court action to enforce the new laws that protect small businesses from unfair contract terms. We were successful in this matter, with the Federal Court declaring, by consent, the offending unfair terms void. We continue to investigate other potential breaches and have another matter currently before the Federal Court.”
The ACCC says scams continue to be a significant threat that small businesses need to be on the lookout for, with nearly $3 million being reported lost to scams by small businesses in 2017.
“Losing money to scams can be devastating to a small business and in some instances lead to them closing their doors,” Dr Schaper said.
He added that small business can expect the ACCC in 2018 to continue its work in relation to business-to-business unfair-contract terms, while a particular focus will be on Franchising Code of Conduct issues involving large or national franchisors.
