“Respondents report feeling fear, shame, embarrassment, a sense of defeat and guilt with their timeshare products,” Choice said in the complaint, which was sent to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission last Thursday.
“At every stage of the timeshare journey, consumers have reported unfair or oppressive practices that Choice believes is either in breach of the law or falls well below community standards and expectations.”
It called on Asic to prosecute timeshare operators who break the law and investigate the industry over allegations of misleading and deceptive conduct by salespeople and breaches of anti-hawking laws, which are designed to stop the unsolicited sale of financial products, at timeshare seminars.
Choice also wants a parliamentary inquiry into the industry that would examine issues including “what legislative and regulatory changes are necessary to protect people from harmful timeshare schemes and improve industry practice”.
Any crackdown by Asic would put the regulator, which is already under heavy political pressure from the Morrison government over issues including responsible lending laws, on a collision course with Queensland senator and the assistant minister to the attorney general, Amanda Stoker.
Stoker has complained in parliamentary hearings about action Asic has already taken against the industry, including a proposal to extend the cooling-off period between agreeing to buy into a timeshare scheme and the contract becoming binding from seven days to 14.
At an estimates hearing in October, she questioned whether Asic’s move “represents a proportionate response, or whether it represents something of a vendetta against the industry”. TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...
No comments:
Post a Comment