The competition and consumer watchdog is renewing calls for prospective franchisees to “do their homework” before taking on a franchise, after a nation-wide courier company was fined $1.9 million in penalties for misleading prospective franchisees.
In proceedings brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Federal Court declared in March that Megasave Couriers Australia breached consumer law by making false or misleading representations to incoming franchisees.
Last month, the court ordered the company to pay $1.9 million in penalties, and director Gary Bourne to pay a penalty of $120,000.
Megasave admitted that, from September 2019 to July 2020, it promised potential franchisees guaranteed minimum weekly payments of about $2,000 and an annual income of $91,000.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Handpicked for you
Four finance options outside the banks: How to navigate alternative lenders
COMMENTS
SmartCompany is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while it is being reviewed, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The SmartCompany comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.