NEWS - Have your say: unfair trade practices

Have you experienced unfair trade practices during your time in the liquor industry, whether working in the on- or off-premise?

One retailer has been so shocked at the recent treatment he has experienced that he turned to the ACCC to question the trade practices that he witnessed. He was told that in order to build a case for the ACCC to investigate he needed submissions from other people in the industry to support his claims.

As a result this retailer has set up a webpage to seek submissions from others in the industry, which can be done anonymously, and which they will collate with a law firm and then submit to the relevant authorities.

The retailer said: “We have some ongoing issues around trade practices, which we were absolutely stunned by. So what we did was we started up a blog and it’s quite incredible how many people are being affected by things like this out there.

“We’ve spoken to several Government departments and Federal politicians about this and they have told us, ‘build up the case and we will take it to the next step’. They are prepared to take anonymous submissions and we have put some of the things that people have told us onto the blog in order to stir up the trade’s interest in this.”

The blog states: “We are aware of unlawful or inappropriate trade practices in our industry that should be investigated by the authorities. The current royal commission into the financial sector highlights the kinds of misconduct that took place in an industry for many years before being surfaced and then openly addressed.

“Realising that we would not be the only ones suffering misconduct within our own industry, we invite other retailers from any industry who have been subject to similar conduct to contact us on a confidential basis.”

The blog lists several possible unfair trade practices which retailers and venue operators may have experienced, and if you have experienced anything like those, or other unfair practices, then you are encouraged to make your submissions to help action be taken. Full details can be found on the Unfair Practices blog page.