WT Howard Funeral Services promoted on its website that it was “proudly local and independently owned” while Coventry Funeral Homes represented that “Fitzgerald’s Funerals in Townsville North Queensland is locally owned and operated”.
This was despite the fact that both WT Howard and Fitzgerald’s 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 nine 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.
As a result, WT Howard and Coventry Funeral Homes have each paid $12,600 in penalties, after the ACCC issued each of the businesses with an infringement notice for allegedly making a false and misleading representation about their ownership.
“Businesses 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,” said ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard said.
The ACCC said it is currently seeking further information about the experiences of consumers and businesses with the funeral services sector.
“If you have organised a funeral, or you work in the funeral services industry and have concerns, please take the time to complete the survey,” Ms Rickard said.
“These penalties are the first enforcement action by the ACCC in this enforcement priority area, but funeral service businesses are on notice that further enforcement action will be considered this year.”
Businesses can access the survey by clicking here. It will remain open until 17 April.
Funeral homes penalised for misrepresenting as ‘local’ businesses | MyBusiness - My Business
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