By Aimee Chanthadavong
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is in consultation with retailers and consumers on a draft national point of sale sign.
The sign is designed to provide consumers with information on their basic return/refund rights under the new consumer guarantees regime and is intended to be suitable for display by retailers across the country at their point of sale or at the front of their store. The sign will be published using Australian Consumer Law branding.
However, National Retailers Association (NRA) executive director Gary Black told RetailBiz he is sceptical about the idea and believes a lot of work needs to be done before it can be executed.
“The communication from the ACCC has caught us by surprise. What we’ve been told is that the ACCC wants to develop this signage and get it out reasonably quickly but we haven’t been directly consulted,” he said.
“From our point of view, there are a lot of questions to be answered. This form of activity shouldn’t happen in isolation because there’s quite a lot of signs used by retailers over the years and if the ACCC wants to develop this sort material I think they would be much better advising of it in a structured way and work through what signs are necessary or appropriate and what content will be on it.”
The ACCC is seeking comment on the draft sign on issues such as the format of the sign, whether the sign deals with the key issues that consumers ask about and whether further point of sale signage should be produced, such as extended warranties and lay-bys.
Black said the NRA has contacted the ACCC to further discuss the matter but has not heard back from the commission.