The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted legal proceedings against Seven Network Limited and a number of related companies, as well as the principals of the Wildly Wealthy Women Millionaire Mentoring Program.
The ACCC alleges that the respondents engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in items aired on the Channel Seven television program Today Tonight in late 2003 and early 2004, and that the non-Seven Network respondents engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct on a website associated with the principals of the mentoring program.
The ACCC on Monday filed proceedings in the Federal Court, Sydney against a number of parties, alleged to have engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct in relation to the coverage of a property investment mentoring program for women, known as the Wildly Wealthy Women Millionaire Mentoring Program, run from the Sunshine Coast by its founders Ms Dymphna Boholt and Ms Sandy Forster.
The ACCC alleges that both the principals of the mentoring program and Seven Network Limited (or wholly owned subsidiaries thereof) made misleading representations as to the results that could be expected by participants in the WWW mentoring program; and that one of the principals of the WWW mentoring program was a millionaire and the other principal owned in excess of 60 properties.
The alleged representations were made during items broadcast on Today Tonight on 31 October 2003 and 30 January 2004.
It is further alleged that the company Universal Prosperity Pty Ltd made representations on the website www.wildlywealthywomen.com as to the results that could be expected by participants of the WWW mentoring program. The ACCC alleges that these representations were false and misleading in contravention of section 52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974, and that Ms Forster and Ms Boholt were knowingly concerned in or parties to the contraventions.
The ACCC is seeking:
- declarations that the respondents have breached the Act
- injunctions restraining the respondents from making the representations or any representations to substantially the same effect as any of them
- corrective notices, and
- costs.
A directions hearing has been set down for 8 November 2005 at 9.30 a.m. before Justice Bennett.