Whether you call it “unfair trading” or know it as the more colloquial “don’t be a jerk” rule, nobody wants to be screwed over by a greedy business.

It can come in different forms, including making it as hard as possible to unsubscribe from a streaming service, secretly signing people up to ‘premium services’ with one click, or including barely visible fees in the final price.

Sometimes companies will make the ‘no’ button green and the ‘yes’ button red to try to confuse people trying to quit a service or cancel an order and, while unfair, these practices aren’t illegal.

Amazon and Medibank have been perpetrators in the past, and now the Albanese government wants to crack down on the practices.

Unfair trading

The United Kingdom introduced unfair trading protections in 2008, creating a ‘general’ duty for traders to act within reasonable expectations and banning fraudulent or misleading behaviour.

In the European Union, similar laws were introduced in 2005 and Singapore was ahead of the game when it introduced restrictions on unfair trading in 2003.

While trapping consumers with unnecessary barriers to unsubscribing,  knowingly tricking customers into signing up through special offers and obscuring prices until it’s time to pay have been banned by countries internationally, Australia has no specific legislation outlawing the unfair behaviour in general terms, only specific cases.

In February, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said more powers are needed to combat unfair trading practices.

“We feel and we see the evidence of it daily,” she said.

“The current prohibitions are insufficient to provide the protection that is currently needed by consumers.”

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb has previously called for stronger unfair trading laws. Photo: AAP

Under current legislation, the ACCC can take action against businesses or individuals for the following activities:

• Contract terms that are unfair
• Making false or misleading claims
• Not delivering products or services that have been paid for
• Pressuring or harassing consumers
• People promoting, participating or persuading others to join a pyramid scheme
• And conduct so harsh “it goes against good conscience”, such as targeting disabled people or those who don’t understand to what they are agreeing.

After outlawing unfair contract terms and introducing other regulations, the Albanese government is looking to fulfil the ACCC’s wishes and legislate a prohibition on unfair trading.

Worst offenders

Amazon is currently in the spotlight, after being called out for operating a ‘subscription trap’.

The Jeff Bezos-owned company has previously been accused of sneakily signing up customers if they clicked a “get a FREE Two-Day Delivery with Prime” tab without any further confirmation.

If the consumer clicked the tab, they were automatically signed up to the 30-day free trial and then charged the following month.

Medibank was found to have acted unfairly, but not illegally. Photo: AAP

In 2018, a court found Medibank acted ‘unfairly’ by not informing members of heathcare insurance changes and increased out-of-pocket costs, but had not acted illegally.