The Australian arm of Purplebricks has been hit with a $20,000 (£11,215) fine by Trading Standards in Queensland.
It has avoided possible court action after entering into two enforceable undertakings after alleged possible breaches of the Australian Consumer Law and the Property Occupations Act.
The OFT said in a statement: “Between November 2016 and June 2017, Purplebricks Australia Pty Ltd, entered into agreements with consumers who were not made aware of the terms of the fees charged.
“Consumers were also misled about additional services offered by Purplebricks, despite the agency advertising ‘low, fixed fees’ for their services when selling property.”
The OFT said it had received “several” complaints from consumers “alleging false and misleading representations on the Purplebricks website and advertising regarding their fees, particularly that the fixed fees were payable regardless of whether a property was sold, or their services were cancelled”.
Purplebricks Australia CEO Ryan Dinsdale told the Financial Review: “Purplebricks has liaised and positively collaborated with Queensland OFT to be open and transparent in communicating our disruptive, customer-focused, flat-fee service in the clearest way possible.
“Understanding that in many cases traditional real estate agents do not publish their fees and terms of business, our rates are prominently disclosed on our home page and we will always act on feedback to ensure we display everything as clearly as possible.
“Accordingly we have agreed to make some adjustments to wording to improve clarity and understanding,”
Purplebricks entered the Australian market in late 2016.
Comments (25)
Now if they just so happen to have been doing it in US …. throw the key away? I’m expecting any day the media here are going to latch onto this story … conmisery in Oz has been going on in the UK for several years.
Nothing from the purple crusaders yet but a couple of dislikes, (nothing to say at last….the truth hurts guys) I think it is the Cyberman, he’s posting on a share site at the moment.
PurpleBricks+ TrustPilot
Sooner they get wiped out better for everyone in the industry. They will be, eventually.
But for many people, it will be too late to save their pockets.
The rest of us should wait to watch the another last episode of Sir Philip Green.
Those that felt the need to consistently fill these pages with justification for these constant breaches have been well and truly silenced!
https://www.productreview.com.au/p/purplebricks.html
Where’s dombitch?
About time. Very weak penalty though.
Even after their warnings here, there are still countless adverts nationally/locally stating no commission with not one reference to any fees charged.
Oops! The financial penalty is fairly paltry however, the damage to the reputation is considerable and is the ‘smoke’ that precedes the fire IMO.
You would have thought however that they would have learned a lesson from their ‘shenanigans’ over here with Watchdog and Radio 4 et al?
Perhaps they just can’t help themselves when it comes to the ‘grand grab’? Scorched earth tactics that a full service agent can’t adopt if they have any hope of building a sustainable business, in my experience.
We should send this link to the ASA
DON’T SPOIL THEIR DAY!, you cruel thing, you…
Blimey, a consumer protection regulator doing their job properly and with teeth!
Shame they are in Australia!
I wonder if the UK regulators shall be shamed into following this ‘fine’ example set by OFT Queensland?
Perhaps UK, Australia and American regulators ought to liaise with one another?
Understanding that in many cases traditional real estate agents do not publish their fees and terms of business, our rates are prominently disclosed on our home page and we will always act on feedback to ensure we display everything as clearly as possible.
So still a fundamentally flawed understanding of fees. Traditional agents don’t claim to have a fixed no commission fee structure unlike PB. When drilled down the public find they have signed up to the property equivalent of Ryanair where everything is available at a cost and the headline price is meaningless.
Masters of smoke and mirrors.
Obviously completely unrelated that over 1 Million employee share options were exercised just the other day. Someone got very lucky with their timing.
I bet PB wouldn’t give a xxxx
Meanwhile in the UK…. Trading Standard and ASA employees are constantly being seen too in A&E for R.S.O.T.W.S
For those non medical folk…. Repetitive Slap On The Wrist Syndrome is a common place injury for people who slap people on the wrists….
This is not to be confused with the people who get slapped on the wrist. They develop L.M.A.O syndrome and we all know what that stands for.
Shame the UK do not have the balls to do this.
Why does their share price always take a hit the day before this sort of news breaks?
Insider trading maybe??
Huge fine? Tickled tummy more like.
Well at least the Aussie authorities show they have some teeth and will use them. Unlike the pathetic wastes of space that we have over here who simply ‘informally resolve’ anything that comes their way.
Do they not have a review site over other than their old friend trustpilot over there that can pick these things up? There’s an opprtunity there for you allagents!
The truth will prevail…….
Counting down the seconds until the appearance of the Dom & Ducky show, waving the purple flag and defending the indefensible.
5-4-3-2-1…
You beat me to that!
Mind you the publicity must be worth $20,000!
UK asa couldn’t give a castlmaine 4x and allow pb uk get away rewriting the fake business handbook.