The consumer watchdog has swooped on two solar companies promoting rooftop PV panels with the ”misleading” claim that the carbon price would push up electricity prices by 20 per cent.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chairman Michael Schaper told the National Times that the companies, one in the ACT and the other in Western Australia, had distributed advertising flyers urging people to buy solar panels to avoid soaring electricity costs.
The ads drew on unsubstantiated claims made by lobby groups that the price of electricity would rise 20 per cent immediately and up to 400 per cent by 2019 because of the carbon price.
”They said these (claims) were based on independent studies but when we went back and looked at them, they were basically third party stories … or advertisements made in newspapers and weren’t actually based on anything that would be regarded as a credible or reasonable source,” Mr Schaper said.
”That’s why we regard these as misleading. They weren’t able to pull out a study that said … it is going to go up by 20 per cent or 400 per cent.”
The companies, Polaris Solar in WA and ACT Renewable Energy - which have common shareholders and directors - have agreed not to use the ads. Directors of the companies will attend practical training also on consumer law and their responsibilities. Both companies co-operated promptly, Mr Schaper said.
Among the sources of information the companies drew upon was a newspaper ad by the Australian Trade and Industry Alliance, an anti-carbon tax group made up of the Minerals Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Coal Association, the Australian Retailers Association, the Housing Industry Association and Manufacturing Australia.
The ACCC looked at credible sources of information and found that the claims could not be supported, Mr Schaper said.
”The message that arises out of this is, ‘Be careful about using third party sources like adverstisements in newspapers,”’ he said.
”Most importantly, there are no reports of consumers having suffered out of pocket.”
The misleading ads were brought to the watchdog’s attention by consumers and also by the offices of Climate
Change Minister Greg Combet and Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury.
The watchdog will release further details next week on the types of complaints it has been receiving on its carbon price hotline.
