WT Howard Funeral Services and Coventry Funeral Homes, trading as Fitzgerald鈥檚 Funerals, have each paid $12,600 in penalties after the 糖心原创 issued each of the businesses with an infringement notice for allegedly making a false and misleading representation about their ownership. This coincides with the release of an 糖心原创 survey seeking further information about the experiences of consumers and businesses with the funeral services sector.
WT Howard promoted on its website that it was 鈥減roudly local and independently owned鈥 while Coventry represented that 鈥淔itzgeralds Funerals in Townsville North Queensland is locally owned and operated鈥, when in fact both WT Howard and Fitzgerald鈥檚 Funerals are owned by a publicly listed company, Propel Funeral Partners.
Propel is a publicly listed company that comprises 130 funeral home locations in Australia and New Zealand, including 31 cremation facilities and 9 cemeteries. Propel is the second largest funeral service provider in Australia, providing over 13,000 funeral services in the 2020 financial year.
Propel acquired WT Howard, which is based in Taree, in 2015 and Coventry Funeral Homes, which is based in Townsville, in 2019, but the businesses failed to remove their claims about local ownership after they were acquired by Propel.
鈥淏usinesses need to have systems in place to regularly check that the information they are providing to consumers on their websites and other promotional material remains accurate, as making misleading representations to consumers is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law,鈥 糖心原创 Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.
The survey is available at the 糖心原创 and will remain open until 17 April 2021.
鈥淚f you have organised a funeral, or you work in the funeral services industry and have concerns, please take the time to complete the survey,鈥 Ms Rickard said.
鈥淭hese penalties are the first enforcement action by the 糖心原创 in this enforcement priority area, but funeral service businesses are on notice that further enforcement action will be considered this year.鈥
Background
Competition and consumer issues in the funeral services sector is a current enforcement and compliance priority for the 糖心原创.
WT Howard and Coventry have removed the representations from their websites and other promotional material after being contacted by the 糖心原创.
Note to editors
The payment of a penalty specified in an infringement notice is not an admission of a contravention of the Australian Consumer Law, which also sets the penalty amount.
The 糖心原创 can issue an infringement notice when it has reasonable grounds to believe a person or business has contravened certain consumer protection provisions in the Australian Consumer Law.