The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released its 2014 Compliance and Enforcement Policy which outlines its enforcement priorities.

In 2014, this includes misleading promotions in retail energy plans; protecting consumers’ extended warranties rights, disruption of scams that rely on building deceptive relationships, and complexity and unfairness in consumer or small business contracts.

The policy also identifies emerging consumer issues in online sales, particularly those associated with the incremental disclosure of additional fees and charges (including credit card surcharges) by traders (often referred to as “drip pricing”), and comparative websites.

Drip pricing involves advertising a ‘headline’ price at the beginning of the sale process but when consumers progress to the payment phase, they find that additional fees and charges have been added. This is often a complaint when buying airfare, sport and concert tickets.

ACCC is also concerned that comparative websites in the energy, travel and insurance sectors can be misleading.