The fine ordered by a Federal Court judge is the second largest ever imposed under Australian consumer law.
Staff sometimes manipulated credit assessments to say unemployed customers had jobs. They also failed to properly explain the potential costs and falsely represented products as free of cost.
Justice
The customers owed on average AU$7,400 (
“I am deeply and personally disappointed that we have let you down. We should have listened more carefully. We should have been more attuned to what was happening. We should have picked this up earlier,” Penn said in a statement to the customers.
“This brings an end to what has been a deeply challenging and disappointing chapter in our history and one in which we are already taking steps to fix,” he said.
“Aboriginal people in the Outback get preyed on by a range of companies,” Gray told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “The Telstra debt was usually the largest amongst all of them,” Gray added.
In 2018, the Federal Court fined the
Dealers knew about the quality issues but blamed owners for their driving styles. Dealers also knew the problems were intermittent but insisted that drivers demonstrate the fault.
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