ACCC Brings Scoopon to Court

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has lodged a suit against group-buying website Scoopon, after receiving numerous complaints from the consumers.

In its statement, the ACCC surmises that Scoopon has “misled consumers regarding their ability to redeem vouchers, their refund rights, and the price of goods advertised in relation to some of its deal.”

The ACCC, a consumer and competition watchdog, also said that Scoopon has misrepresented businesses by saying that there were no risk nor fees involved if ever they participated in running deals on the website. Yet, Scoopon apparently received fees and claimed that at least 30 percent of the vouchers would not be redeemed.

The complaint has been filed in the Federal Court in Brisbane.

Scoopon, meanwhile, has said it will review the allegations and would be cooperative with the ACCC.

In its statement, the company said that their process of managing deals, as well as handling customer service, has been in accordance with the ADMA Code of Practice, which is supposed to help improve consumer confidence especially among group buying operations.

The ACCC said that since Group Buying has had its steady growth online in 2010, the complaints they have received have risen into a “significant number,” along with other complaints that regulators from the Australian Consumer Law also receive.

Earlier, however, the NSW Fair Trading said that group buying sites complaints have reduced, and that group buying sites markets have also shrunk in the last three years.

Revenue for this industry is pegged at about $500 million yearly.