The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has applied for orders in the Federal Court, Sydney, against Advanced Medical Institute Pty Ltd (AMI) and Mr Jacov Vaisman for alleged contempt.
The ACCC has alleged that AMI and Mr Vaisman did not comply with a court order made by Justice Whitlam on 2 December 2003 in the ACCC's case against AMI and Mr Vaisman.
Under that order AMI and/or Mr Vaisman were ordered to use their best endeavours to have published a corrective statement concerning the efficacy of one of their impotency treatments for a period of six weeks on the ninemsn internet site.
In April 2002, the ACCC brought an action against AMI and its managing director, Jacov Vaisman, for breach of ss52 and 53 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 about advertisements and promotion of various treatments for male impotency. The ACCC alleged that representations appearing in the ninemsn internet site about AMI's IntraGlans Gel treatment were misleading and deceptive.
The representations appeared between August 2001 and March 2004 in two documents titled Stories- IntraGlans Gel: making a difference to men, and on, Fact Sheets about Intra Glans Gel. The representations were that AMI IntraGlans Gel product had no general side effects, was easy to use, and had an effect within about 10 minutes.
On 2 December 2003, the Federal Court declared, by consent, that both AMI and Mr Vaisman had breached the Act by making misleading or deceptive representations about the nature, suitability and effectiveness of impotency treatments for men. The judge made a variety of orders, including declarations, injunctions, corrective advertisements and the implementation of a trade practices compliance program.
The ACCC has alleged that AMI and Mr Vaisman have not complied with the order by not using their best endeavours to have the corrective statement published on the ninemsn internet site. AMI and Mr Vaisman have alleged that they have complied with the court's order and that the reason the corrective statement had not been published is because ninemsn required a payment before it published the statement.
A directions hearing has been set down for Friday 12 November 2004 before Justice Whitlam at 9.30 am in Sydney.