But nobody else has ever done that!
Published: Fri, 10/01/21
From the friendly caves of Pixie Hollow.
Yesterday I had an interesting exchange with a real estate agent. It went something like this:
I got a flyer in the letterbox with the agent's name and face plastered all over it.
The flyer stated that if I sent my name and address to her mobile number, she would send me the current market price of the dwelling very quickly, to my mobile phone.
Beauty, I thought.
So I sent her a message.
She replied that because I'm not the owner of the house, she's not allowed to tell me anything.
She said this despite her flyer:
- Not indicating that there were conditions attached
- Not indicating that only owners of the home are allowed to receive information
- Not indicating that her offer did not apply to renters
- Not indicating laws, regulations, privacy policies, or URLs of any kind.
Well, as someone who is intimately familiar with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) I can tell you that it doesn't apply unless there is an investigation in force in relation to a complaint. Unless, of course, she intended to do something else with the information, also unstated, which again contravenes the misleading advertising rules.
Upon informing her of this, she told me that privacy is a matter of politeness, and it's not a competition. Furthermore, she threw that golden line:
'Nobody else who was not a property owner has ever asked for one.'
Because that makes it never going to happen? Nooooope. What a huge assumption!
Perhaps she needs some education about the Privacy Principles in Australia, as well as commercial law. And maybe Mulengro, too.
I'm telling you this because, if I were less tolerant, I'd simply have sent her information and her flyer to the ACCC.
Australia's misleading advertising rules are intense. For example:
If you run a shoe shop, and you have a new young'un working for ya who puts the wrong shoes underneath a 'Buy 1 Get One 50% Off' sign, then if someone chooses those shoes:
- You give them the shoes for free (because you made a mistake); or
- You withdraw all of those shoes from sale for the duration.
The reason is because the overall message is that those particular shoes were on super sale where you'd get a second pair half-off.
So I'd like to give you a warning:
Never issue anything if you have conditions attached and you don't make it very clear that there are conditions attached. The rules about misleading advertising apply to the overall impression and not the words on the page. This is why, if you have conditions attached, but those conditions are in 8pt font at the bottom edge of the paper, you'll still get into trouble.
Most people believe that it doesn't apply to them.
Most people believe that they will never be pinged for misdemeanours.
But I'm here to tell you that even if it's a misdemeanour, the fines still apply.
So your lesson today is three-fold:
- Don't publish any offer unless you're very sure that it complies with the rules in whatever territory you're releasing it.
- Double-check that the overall impression isn't misleading to anybody.
- Review your own assumptions. How do they play into what you're doing?