ACCC takes action against Equifax, formerly Veda

ACCC takes action against Equifax, formerly Veda

16 March 2018
The ACCC has today instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against credit reporting body, Equifax Pty Ltd (formerly Veda Advantage Pty Ltd), alleging breaches of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

The ACCC alleges that from June 2013 to March 2017, Equifax made a range of false or misleading representations to consumers, including that its paid credit reports were more comprehensive than the free reports, when they were not.

Equifax also allegedly represented that consumers had to buy credit reporting packages for it to correct information held about them, or to do so quicker. In fact, Equifax was required by law to take reasonable steps to correct the information in response to a consumer’s request for free. ......... see more at the link

 

good news!

 

About time. Their paid product is rubbish in my humble opinion

 

About time. Rip off merchants who deliberately make it hard(er) to access the free report. Shame.

 

Finally ASIC is looking out for the individual.

The last time I looked, they made it very difficult to get a paid copy of just your report. Instead you're forced to subscribe to their notification service which is significantly more expensive.

Frankly these reports should be free to individuals and if they can deliver a paid version immediately, they can deliver the free version just as quickly. It should only be third parties (credit providers) that need to pay, or those that wish to subscribe to the notification service.

 

ASIC not involved. ACCC

There is legislation in place (can't remember which act) which dictates these credit reporting company MUST give a copy of the credit report for free to an individual if asked. I think there is a time limit of one per 6 months or so. - its probably under the privacy act.

 

Good.

 

Believe the issue is one of misleading and deceptive conduct under ACL as the penalties under that law are super heavy. They have sold the concept of a better report if you pay a fee or subscribe to alerts etc. The difference is not as they have portrayed and they arent making people aware of the option for a free reports as clearly as the paid thing.

ACCC takes action against Equifax, formerly Veda