We have advised our clients on all issues pertaining to misleading and deceptive conduct for 25 years.

We have handled complex litigation in the Federal Court, Supreme Court, District Court and Magistrates Courts in both prosecuting and defending the most complicated misleading and deceptive conduct claims in those courts.

These cases involve claims pursuant to the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) (now Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)) and Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) breaches and claims against company directors.

We provide top tier services and top tier experience at substantially better rates than those of our competitors and we provide fixed fee costs wherever possible for all of our matters.

Further information can be found here regarding our fixed fees.

Different types of Misleading and Deceptive Conduct

There are a number of different types of conduct that may be construed to be misleading or deceptive conduct:

 Misleading Statements

A person who makes a misleading statement can be found to be in breach of Section 18 of Australian Consumer Law.  This also includes third parties who create, adopt or endorse misleading or deceptive statements.

Statements About the Future

If a statement projects or forecasts the future it can be deemed misleading or deceptive. Statements about the future are not misleading simply because they turn out to be false – the ruling factor will be whether or not the party making the statement had reasonable grounds for making a statement predicting the future and whether the party making the statement knew the statement was untrue or correct.

Silence as Misleading or Deceptive Conduct

Misleading or deceptive conduct can also consist of omissions or silence in relation to relevant information. For example:

  • a. one person fails to alert another to facts known only to them, and the facts are relevant to a decision;
  • b. important details a person should know are not conveyed to them;
  • c. a change in circumstance meant information already provided was incorrect.

For instance, if a property developer fails to disclose material information about real estate, this can amount to misleading and deceptive conduct.

Remedies

Misleading or deceptive conduct may lead to civil remedies, including:

  • injunctions
  • damages
  • compensatory orders
  • orders for non-party consumers
  • non-punitive orders.