RICHARD GLOVER:
Is there a particular marketing tactic that really grinds your gears? Maybe it’s the subscription that’s impossible to quit from or the gym that won’t tell you their prices until you show up in person. Well, the federal government says they’re taking action to outlaw so‑called unfair trading practices. But what falls under that umbrella? Because, obviously, a lot of things are already outlawed by the regulations. Stephen Jones is Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and joins us here on Drive. Minister, good afternoon.
STEPHEN JONES:
Good afternoon, Richard. Good to be back with you.
GLOVER:
Tell us about some of the things that you think are currently allowed under the law, but really, really shouldn’t be.
JONES:
Look, a bunch of these are in grey areas. They shouldn’t be happening, they should be unlawful, but they’re in grey areas. So, let me go through a couple of them. Dynamic pricing had a bit of conversation about this after a few pop concerts lately. It extends to practices in sporting events, the tennis, the cricket, where you go online, you see – when you get online that the price might be $100 a ticket, but over the course of the 15–20 minutes that you’re online and everyone else is trying to buy one at the same time, the price goes up and up and up and up.
GLOVER:
So, the computer algorithm is responding to demand by pushing up the price to a point where supply meets demands, I suppose?
JONES:
That’s exactly how it’s working. Dynamic pricing, sharp practice, consumers incredibly disgruntled about it. And we agree, the next one –
GLOVER:
– I mean, sorry, before we go on – I mean, it does happen with other things. Uber, for instance, has a form of that, don’t they? I mean, their argument is that if dynamic pricing can lead to better service because it attracts more, the higher price during, say, a storm attracts more drivers to the road. So, they argue it’s a good thing.
JONES:
Look, we’ll work through some of these issues. The target for this is some of the online services, I’ve got to say. And the big one in frame is ticket pricing, which – now, the other one I want to talk about is drip pricing. This is where you go online, the advertised price, the sticker price for something is at one level, and then as you go through the forms, they keep on adding additional charges or additional components to it, all of which are essential to the service or the product or can’t be separated from it, and you end up paying a lot more than the sticker price.
GLOVER:
Okay, so they add the GST later, or they add the postage later, or they add the insurance later.
JONES:
Booking fees or all of these other fees that are added on. They’re common, like your booking fee or your service fee or all – they’re all added on the top of it. It’s very misleading to consumers.
GLOVER:
I mean, I’ve heard the ACCC talk about that in the past. Isn’t that already illegal?
JONES:
Some of these things are in a grey area and we want to remove the grey and make it black and white. So, that’s one of them. And in many instances, depends on how it’s being done. But it’s driving consumers nuts. It’s deceptive. It’s sharp practice. We want to make it black and white to ensure that it can no longer rip consumers off through these sort of practices. The third one, which you mentioned in your intro, is what we call subscription traps. Big front door, easy to sign up, bloody small back door. You can’t get out. You can’t get out of them. So, you sign up to your streaming service. They’ve got your credit card details. Almost impossible to get out of it.
GLOVER:
I don’t subscribe to American papers, but some people say with one of the prominent American papers that you subscribe – it’s very easy to subscribe, of course, but to unsubscribe, you have to ring – you have to phone a number during business hours in the United States.
JONES:
A couple of examples like that, and that’s clearly unfair. It’s clearly designed to ensure that consumers can’t get out again. So, another example, there’s gyms examples that have been brought to us, subscribing to a gym service, all of that. There’s a bunch of different examples –
GLOVER:
– What are the gyms? What do the gyms tend to do that is deceptive – other than promise me a better body, Stephen?
JONES:
Well, that’s deceptive right there isn’t it. But no, all jokes aside, making it very difficult to unsubscribe, for example, having to go to a certain place during certain hours, having to go through a whole bunch of processes that should be as simple to subscribe as it is to unsubscribe to those services.
GLOVER:
Let’s go to the timetable for all this because we only got a couple of minutes left. When does this all happen and when can people be confident that they will be able to, for instance, unsubscribe with ease?
JONES:
Consultation paper out on some of the details over the next few months. So, out for consultation over the next few months and then legislation to be drafted and passed through Parliament in the early part of next year.
GLOVER:
Okay. Before the election?
JONES:
I’d be over the moon if we’re able to get this done before the election, Richard. We don’t control the Upper House but I’ll be over the moon if we’re able to get some of this stuff.
GLOVER:
It’s hard to imagine you’re going to get much opposition. I can’t imagine the Greens or David Pocock or Jacqui Lambie thinking any of these are unreasonable ideas.
JONES:
I’d hope that everyone looks at this and says this is just common sense. It’s in the interest of Australian consumers and they’ll back the Albanese government on it.
GLOVER:
Ok, we’ll see what happens. Stephen, thank you so much.
JONES:
Good on you.
GLOVER:
Stephen Jones, who’s the Assistant Treasurer as the government proposes making some things that are in the shadows actually black and white in terms of ease of subscription, things like drip pricing and the so called dynamic pricing, which I know some people fell not here so much, but in the UK recently fell foul of with the Oasis tickets which seemed to, once the demand was realised suddenly were incredibly inflated.