Compliance & Ethics

The Australian Energy Regulator spent much of the past year following the money. It traced overcharges to Centrepay customers, questioned whether vulnerable households had been properly protected, examined how retailers treated customers struggling to pay their bills, and looked closely at what happened when obligations designed to shield people from harm became little more than words on paper.

When Microsoft folded Copilot into its Microsoft 365 subscriptions last year, the change arrived quietly enough. Existing customers on Personal and Family plans suddenly found themselves with new AI features at no extra cost for the remainder of their subscriptions. The real decision came later, when renewal notices began arriving and the free addition became a more expensive default.

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has opened proceedings against Columbus Energy, one of Poland's best-known renewable energy installers, over allegations that the information consumers received before signing a contract, the way the company described their right to withdraw, and the time some customers waited to recover their money after exercising that right.

On Tuesday, the Australian Federal Court ordered Harvey Norman Holdings and Latitude Finance Australia to pay a combined $35.9 million (AUD $55 million) after finding they engaged in misleading conduct and made false or misleading representations in a nationwide advertising campaign that ran between January 2020 and August 2021. Harvey Norman was ordered to pay $22.8 million (AUD $35 million), while Latitude was ordered to pay $13.1 million (AUD $20 million). According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the combined penalty is among the largest it has secured in a case involving misleading conduct related to financial products and services.

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has opened proceedings against several companies involved in condo hotel developments, alleging they misled consumers about investment returns while failing to explain the costs and risks that could emerge long after the brochures had been put away. The investigations also challenge contract terms that, according to the regulator, deprived owners of meaningful control over properties they had purchased and punished those who tried to exercise it.

Dallas-based Magnolia Diagnostics, its owners, and a group of investors have agreed to pay the United States $24 million to resolve allegations that the laboratory billed Medicare for thousands of medically unnecessary respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) tests performed on seniors undergoing COVID-19 testing. Of that total, Magnolia and its owners will pay $19.2 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act, while investors will pay a further $4.8 million to resolve civil claims for unjust enrichment, payment by mistake, and claims under the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act arising from distributions they received from the company.

In two decisions under the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Commission fined Google a combined €890 million, finding that the company unlawfully favored its own services in Google Search while also preventing app developers from freely steering customers toward alternative purchasing channels outside Google Play. The penalties amount to €460 million for Google's search practices and €430 million for its Play Store policies.