00:00Very serious sales conduct is the allegation here.
00:06So the ACCC says that Optus engaged at its stores, particularly in stores in Darwin and
00:13Mount Isa in Queensland, serious sales misconduct, that there was misselling, particularly involving
00:20First Nations customers, that they sold expensive products they couldn't afford, in some cases
00:26didn't need and didn't understand what they were signing up to, and that led to considerable
00:31harm.
00:32Let's hear from the head of the ACCC, Gina Cascott-Leib.
00:38The impacted consumers suffered financial harm of thousands of dollars, but in addition
00:43emotional harm, the fear, shame and distress of the debts and of being pursued by debt
00:50collectors.
00:52We also allege that the conduct continued after management became aware of the failings
00:59in the system being exploited or manipulated by staff in terms of the credit checks, and
01:05also that the commission-based remuneration system incentivised this bad sales behaviour.
01:12This conduct is unacceptable.
01:15So Michael, how were First Nations customers allegedly mistreated?
01:21What is alleged is that hundreds of people across the country were missold to, and that
01:27that included people who had serious cognitive difficulties in some cases, or other disabilities,
01:35and that they didn't fully appreciate what they were signing up to.
01:38In some cases it wasn't explained, or the allegation is that a series of things, including
01:45credit assessments, were manipulated along the way.
01:48And probably one of the most serious allegations is that people were sold products that simply
01:53didn't work in their communities, so there weren't checks done to make sure that the
01:58people who were buying Optus products actually had them functioning once they were back home
02:03in remote communities, and many of them were in regional or remote areas.
02:07So it's very serious conduct, and it goes down to sales culture, but also oversight
02:15inside Optus, and what exactly the management knew and when, and the ACCC alleges that there
02:21was knowledge at senior levels at a point, and not enough was done to stop it and to
02:28fix up what had happened to consumers.
02:31So what's the ACCC seeking?
02:34They won't say exactly what the penalty is that they're seeking, but they say it should
02:38be significant, because this comes after a successful prosecution of Telstra for very
02:44similar conduct, and Telstra was fined $50 million for that, and we know that this is
02:51more than 400 consumers in the Optus case, the allegations involve.
02:56In Telstra's case, it was just over 100, so it was $50 million in the Telstra case.
03:02So we'll wait and see what may happen here.
03:04This has a long way to go.
03:05The allegations have not been tested in court.
03:09But they're also seeking that consumers who were negatively affected by this alleged conduct,
03:16that they get remediated properly, but also that there's a series of actions put in place
03:23by Optus to make sure this sort of thing can't happen again.
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