Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v TPG Internet Pty Ltd
[2019] FCA 1677
At a glance
Source factsCourt
Federal Court of Australia
Decision date
2019-10-11
Before
O'Callaghan J
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Judgment (19 paragraphs)
- The proceeding be dismissed.
- The applicant pay the respondent's costs of the proceeding. Note: Entry of orders is dealt with in Rule 39.32 of the Federal Court Rules 2011.
The agreed facts 1 The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) brings this proceeding under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), sch 2 ('Australian Consumer Law') (the ACL) against TPG Internet Pty Ltd (TPG), alleging that a term contained in plans offered on its website for various mobile, internet and home telephone services is misleading or deceptive, and is unfair. 2 The parties tendered an agreed statement of facts dated 15 April 2019 (ASOF). The agreed facts may be summarised as follows. 3 TPG is a retailer of mobile, internet and home telephone services. It supplies services to consumers on a prepaid basis, meaning that customers are required to pay TPG in advance for the TPG services selected by them. 4 Since 14 March 2013, TPG has marketed on its website, http://tpg.com.au, (TPG Website) a variety of personal mobile, internet and home telephone plans. 5 Each such plan requires a fixed monthly amount to be paid by the customer in advance for the particular services (mobile, home telephone, internet) that are included in the plan acquired by the customer. 6 In order to enter into a plan, customers must make what is described by TPG as a "prepayment" of $20 (or more if nominated by the customer) for usage that is not within the included value of the plan acquired. 7 The prepayment is debited from the customer's nominated bank account or credit card. 8 Usage charges incurred by the customer for services not within the included value of the plan acquired are deducted by TPG from the prepayment amount or balance. 9 Since 14 March 2013, there have been terms in the plans which provide that when: (a) the balance of the prepayment falls to below $10, TPG will debit a sufficient amount from the customer's bank account or credit card (if available) to restore the prepayment amount (Automatic Top-Up Term); and (b) the customer cancels their plan, the unused balance of the prepayment is forfeited to TPG (Forfeiture Term). 10 In respect of the "Mobile Plans", during the period from March 2013 to November 2016 the relevant webpages of the TPG Website included the following term under the heading "Mobile Prepayment Outside Included Value": All TPG services are prepaid. You must pay the monthly recurring charges in advance. In addition, you must make a prepayment for usage that is not within the included value (if any) for the plan that you have acquired. Your initial prepayment will be $20. After registration, you may nominate how much you wish to prepay but the minimum amount is $20. The prepayment will be debited from your nominated bank account or credit card. By acquiring and continuing to use the service, you agree to an automatic top up of your prepayment. The top up will occur when the amount of prepayment falls to below $10. When that happens, TPG will debit a sufficient amount from your bank account/credit card to restore your nominated prepayment amount. If your usage is higher, this can occur more than once per month. You authorise TPG to make such debits to your account/credit card. If you do not exceed the Included Value and do not incur any charges that are excluded from your plan, there will be no automatic top-ups. We will send you messages about your usage and the debits during the month. Your service will become inactive if our attempts to debit credit card/bank account to top up your prepayment are unsuccessful. If you do not use the prepayment, it will be forfeited to us when you cancel the service. You agree that no bill will be provided for the service and that direct debiting of your account or charge to your credit card may occur notwithstanding that no bill is provided and that it may occur even though you may not have had the opportunity to check charges at least 10 working days before the debit. 11 In respect of the Mobile Plans during the period from around November 2016 to the present, the relevant webpages of the TPG Website included the following term under the heading "Mobile Prepayment Outside Included Value (T4G PAYG)": All TPG services are prepaid. You must pay the monthly recurring charges in advance. In addition, you must make a prepayment for usage that is not within the included value (if any) for the plan that you have acquired. Your initial prepayment will be $20. After registration, you may nominate how much you wish to prepay but the minimum prepayment is $20. The prepayment will be debited from your nominated bank account or credit card. By acquiring and continuing to use the service, you agree to an automatic top up of your prepayment. The top up will occur when the amount of prepayment falls to below $10. When that happens, TPG will debit a sufficient amount from your bank account/credit card to restore your nominated prepayment amount. If your usage is higher, this can occur more than once per month. You authorise TPG to make such debits to your account/credit card. If you do not exceed the Included Value and do not incur any charges that are excluded from your plan, there will be no automatic top-ups. We will send you messages about your usage and to the debits during the month. Your service will become inactive if our attempts to debit credit card/bank account to top up your prepayment are unsuccessful. If you do not use the prepayment, it will be forfeited to us when you cancel the service. You agree that no bill will be provided for this service and that direct debiting of your account or charge to your credit card may occur notwithstanding that no bill is provided and that it may occur even though you may not have had the opportunity to check charges at least 10 working days before the debit. 12 The parties agreed that there is no relevant difference between those two provisions for the purposes of this proceeding. 13 The parties also agree that the webpages for other plans (called the ADSL2+ with Home Phone Bundle Plans, the FTTB Bundle Plans and the NBN Bundle Plans (the other plans)) contain, and have at all material times contained, relevantly identical terms. 14 A customer intending to acquire a plan from TPG via the TPG Website must navigate through an online "purchase pathway", including banner advertising and pop-up information. 15 For the purposes of this proceeding, it was agreed that, between March 2013 and November 2016, the webpages that a person contemplating, or intending to purchase, one of the Mobile Plans via the TPG Website could or needed to access: (a) did not vary substantively from the example "purchase pathway" displayed in annexures A - I inclusive to the ASOF; and (b) did not substantively change during this period. 16 The webpages for Mobile Plans since November 2016 are in relevantly identical terms. 17 The TPG Website "purchase pathways" for the other plans are, and have been at all material times, relevantly identical. 18 During the course of the hearing, I was shown by junior counsel for the ACCC a "live" demonstration of the online pathway for purchasing and accessing information about TPG's Mobile plans on the TPG Website. Paginated screenshots that mimic that demonstration are attached to these reasons as Annexure A. Although hyperlinks within a webpage can, of course, be accessed in various sequences, the screenshots that comprise Annexure A appear in the following order, which is the order adopted by counsel during the demonstration: