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Consumers have the right to expect your business won't mislead or deceive them. Your advertising should never lead a customer to believe something that's not true about the value, capability or quality of your goods or services.
You could be breaking the law if you give customers a false or misleading impression about:
You must also be honest about any testimonials, affiliations or approvals and sponsored endorsements.
It's illegal to mislead consumers when advertising goods and services.
It's possible to mislead or deceive without intending to—it's your actions and statements that matter, not your intentions. Beware of these traps.
You can't hide the important facts about goods or services in the fine print.
A disclaimer is a statement that lets consumers know what to expect from a product or service and may include information about the limits of a seller’s legal liability. Any disclaimers must:
For example, a gym membership advertises a weekly fee, but doesn't include additional admin fees.
A promise, opinion or prediction about a product or service can be misleading or deceptive if you:
For example:
You must not keep silent about important facts relating to your goods or services. You must give consumers enough information to make an informed choice.
For example:
Courts will look at the details of each case to decide if silence was deceptive conduct.
If you offer gifts, rebates or prizes, you must actually provide them. They must match their advertised description. False competitions are illegal.
For example, a stereo business holds a promotion where customers who buy a stereo go into a draw to win prizes. The retailer adds fake names to the draw and declares these as the winners, so no prizes are ever awarded.
You must keep a reasonable supply of sale items you advertise. If you sell out, you can't talk customers into buying something similar that’s a higher price or lower quality.
For example, an electronics business advertises a television for $799 in a week-long sale. The business would usually sell about 30 televisions of this type each week. In this bait advertising example, the business only stocks 2 of the advertised televisions and refuses to take customer orders. When customers try to buy the advertised television, they're told it’s out of stock and offered a more expensive television for $999.
Businesses often advertise that a product or service was originally available at a certain price but is now on sale for a lower price. They might compare their:
This is known as 'was/now pricing', 'two-price advertising' or 'strike through pricing'.
If your business offers comparative pricing, you must ensure that consumers aren't misled about the savings they will get.
For example, advertising a product as 'was $100, now $50' or '$100 $50' is misleading if the product wasn't sold at $100 for a reasonable period directly before the sale started.
It can also be misleading if only a small number of previous sales were at the higher price directly before the sale began.
Manufacturers can offer cash back when they're trying to increase sales or pass on discounts. Businesses that use 'cash back offers' must ensure consumers aren't misled about the benefits.
For example, advertising cash back when actually issuing a gift card is misleading or deceptive conduct.
It's also illegal to offer rebates, gifts or prizes without intending to supply them, or not providing them as offered.
Other misleading conduct includes:
If you're offering cash back promotions, we recommend you make sure the consumer is aware of all conditions they must meet to receive the offer before they buy.
For example, a business promotes a $3 cash back offer on the outside of a 500g packet of biscuits. After buying the biscuits, the customer sees the conditions inside the pack, which reveal the cash back is only available if they can provide 3 barcodes from other items in the range of products, excluding the 500g packet of biscuits.
You must never accept payment from a customer if you:
For example, a trader takes payment for installing solar panels when they know stock is not available.
The maximum penalties for false or misleading conduct are $50 million for a corporation and $2.5 million for an individual.
Some advertisements make claims that are clearly over the top. They may use wildly exaggerated, fanciful or vague statements or images. This is called 'puffery' and businesses are allowed to advertise this way.
There is no legal distinction between puffery and misleading or deceptive conduct. A court would need to decide if a reasonable person would believe that conduct is misleading.
For example, someone sees an advertisement for a deodorant showing users becoming more attractive and desirable. They buy the deodorant but notice no change in themself. In court, the deodorant business successfully argues that the claims were so fanciful the person was unreasonable for taking them seriously.
Contact Ad Standards if you think an advertisement is offensive because it:
