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Further to our Bulletin of February 18 regarding this subject, the ACCC have now issued guidelines for the legislation due to come into effect on the 25th of this month. This may help assist you to understand the new laws in regard to all inclusive pricing and how it differentiates from component pricing:
Our Trade Practices legal advisers on this matter, HWL Ebsworth (Richard Westmoreland, Tel: 02 9334 8717) has provided further information as follows:
Freight forwarders will need to comply with the new all inclusive pricing rules whenever:
- they advertise or give a price to anyone other than a company;
- for a service that might be bought by someone for personal purposes - e.g., shipping personal effects.
For these services, forwarders must ensure that their quotes or advertising include an all inclusive or 'all in' price. The all inclusive price needs to be at least as prominent in the quote or advertisement as any other price you might quote, such as the base freight rate. Quoting for affected services in the form of "$x plus surcharges" without also quoting the all inclusive price will be illegal and could result in penalties of up to $1.1 million.
The most important point for freight forwarders in the guidelines the ACCC have just issued is that the ACCC considers that you will not be excused from including a charge just because it may change over the period for which a quote or advertisement might be valid.
For forwarders, this means you can't exclude surcharges from a price quote to individuals on the basis that the surcharges might change. Instead, if the service is one that might ordinarily be acquired for personal use (e.g. shipping personal effects) the forwarder must provide an 'all in' price based on the surcharge levels as they stand at the time you quote the price. Forwarders must then include a prominent 'subject to change' disclaimer.
The relevant quotes from the ACCC's guideline are as follows:
At page 2 of the general guide: The single price means the minimum total cost able to be quantified (or calculated) at the time of making the representation for a consumer to purchase the good or service. An amount is quantifiable if it can be readily converted into a dollar amount. If it is subject to variation (such as fluctuations in currency), you must calculate it based on information available at that time and clearly advise consumers that it may be subject to change.
On the back page of the general guide: Remember, the fact that a price may be subject to change does not mean that it is unable to be quantified.
You can download the relevant ACCC guideline at the following page:
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item.phtml?itemId=871339&nodeId=2e14833bf110b5690f0d6ce097da8283&fn=News%20for%20business%E2%80%94Component%20price%20advertising.pdf
Please advise all concerned.
Thanks and regards.
Brian Lovell
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Federation of International Forwarders Ltd (AFIF)
Suite 403, Level 3
152 Bunnerong Road
Eastgardens NSW 2036
Tel: (61 2) 9314 3055
Fax: (61 2) 9314 3116 | 
