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ACCC launches court action against online retailer

OzDirect accused of allegedly deceiving customers

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched legal action in the Federal Court against OzDirect Online Brands and its director, Paul Albright, for allegedly deceiving customers.

The online retailer stocks a wide range of tech brands, sells direct to the public and claims its products ”are supplied directly from the manufacturers' warehouse - no middlemen”.

It stands accused of knowingly breaking sections 52, 53(g) and 58 of the Trade Practices Act 1974. These violations include falsely claiming to have stock and accepting payment from customers while intending not to supply the goods.

The site claims to have more than 20,000 satisfied customers across seven countries. Brands advertised include HP, Seagate, Microsoft, Symantec, AMD, IBM, Kingston and Cisco.

But, according to a Seagate spokesperson, all the vendor’s products in Australia are sold exclusively through the channel. Microsoft, AMD and Kingston were all contacted by ARN and also expressed doubt in the claims. All confirmed their lack of involvement with OzDirect.

A popular online price-checking website MyShopping.com.au, featured a long series of angry customers that claimed to have paid for products that had not been received.

Other sites linked to this case include OzDirect.com.au and AusBuys. The interlocutory hearing will take place on July 24.

OzDirect had not responded to comment by time of publication.

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More about: ACCC, AMD, ARN, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, HP, IBM, IBM Australia, Kingston, Microsoft, Seagate, Symantec
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Comments

1

Anonymous

Thu 16/07/2009 - 09:54

ACCC launches court action against online retailer

OzDirect, like so many other online retailer's web sites are back-ended into various distributor's inventory systems. As such, OzDirect's claim that "... products are supplied directly from the manufacturers warehouse - no middlemen..." is a blatent misrepresentation of fact.

A quick check of manufacturer's stock code DWL-G650M for example links this code to an Ingram Micro SKU (DLK6023 - note that this code is also detailed on OzDirect's site). This consequently validates that this and many other items are stock lines sold via distribution and NOT via OzDirect's own stock holdings.

Case closed!!!

2

Anonymous

Fri 17/07/2009 - 01:22

you search among major distributor's website you will find they all linked together with exact the same code and description. This isn't hard to get it on!

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Tags: amd, Cisco, HP, IBM, kingston, Microsoft, OzDirect Online Brands, seagate, symantec
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