INDUSTRY NEWS
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NATIONAL
ACCC appeals $1million penalty in Employsure Google ads case Members may recall when our members were contacted by Private IR provider, Employsure to provide IR and WH&S support services. As a result, several members were lured into a locked 3-year contract at exorbitant cost. MGA received many complaints from members, who also mentioned Employsure delegates nationally, discredited MGA as a means to gain membership. As a concern, MGA lay down these complaints with the ACCC. Following years of the ACCC building a case, Employsure was found guilty of misleading and unconscionable behaviour and fined. The ACCC has filed an appeal against the $1 million penalty ordered by the Federal Court against Employsure for making misleading representations that it was, or was affiliated with, a government agency, in Google advertisements published between August 2016 and August 2018.
A hearing for the appeal before the Full Federal Court will be fixed at a later date. This is an example of the Google advertisements run by Employsure:
Employsure published six misleading Google advertisements which appeared in response to searches for terms like ‘fair work ombudsman’, ‘fair work commission’ and similar terms and featured headlines like ‘Fair Work Ombudsman Help – Free 24/7 Employer Advice’. In the ACCC media release on 17 January 2022 ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said, “We were concerned Employsure’s Google ads potentially misled thousands of Australian businesses over a two-year period into contacting Employsure, thinking they were dealing with a government agency, or one affiliated with the government. Any attempt to misrepresent a business as being part of the government is a serious breach of trust, and of our consumer laws.”
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The ACCC had sought a penalty of $5 million and is appealing from the penalty judgment on the basis the $1 million penalty ordered is manifestly inadequate. “We believe a higher penalty is necessary and appropriate having regard to the nature of the conduct and size of Employsure, to ensure that internet advertisers are sufficiently deterred from misleading consumers about who they are dealing with,” Mr Keogh said.
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