"Legally, Web sites aren't required to adhere to best practice, but if they want to attract customers and instil confidence in e-commerce, they need to do more than the legal minimum," said the Minister for Consumer Affairs, John Lenders. The month-long sweep covered 380 Web sites including 95 motor-car traders, 160 real estate agents, 33 travel agents and 67 credit providers, finance and wealth creation web-sites.
During the search Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) detected:
- 86 possible breaches of the motor car trader's legislation, of these almost three-quarters didn't show the motor car trader's licence number and others omitted cash prices for used cars and vehicle details for used cars;
- 15 possible breaches of the Travel Agents Act because the travel agent's licence number was not advertised on the site;
- a high level of compliance amongst credit providers with the Consumer Credit Code with only one breach; and,
- only a small number of estate agent websites met all the Best Practice standards, with only one containing complaint-handling procedures and only 33 providing privacy policies.
"We have sent warning letters to some businesses and will take action against traders who don't deal with identified breaches of the law," said Lenders. "We want to ensure consumers are as confident in their online transactions as they are when they visit the corner store."
Lenders said the Victorian government carried out regular audits like this to identify systemic issues.
