A second major Queensland fire protection service has admitted misleading its clients about the services it did not provide.
Action against Chubb Australia Limited, trading as Chubb Fire, was concluded with the grant of injunctions by Justice Kiefel of the Federal Court in Brisbane. The action follows a continuing Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigation into the fire protection industry. It involved Chubb Fire's failure to provide contracted inspection, testing and maintenance to some of its customers' fire alarm systems.
The ACCC alleged that, over the period 1992-1998, Chubb Fire failed to perform all contracted servicing of fire alarm systems to the relevant Australian Standards for some of its customers' systems.
Chubb Fire is the second major company to have faced legal action from the ACCC for such conduct, following on from an investigation that resulted in Court orders against Tyco Australia Pty Ltd trading as Wormald Fire Systems in December 1999.
Affected Chubb Fire customers included Belmont Private Hospital, Wesley Central Mission, Amaroo Nursing Home, Castlemaine Perkins Brewery, Ballymore Rugby Union, SWQEB Toowoomba and Dalby, Ipswich Trades Hall and Central Railway Station.
"This conduct could have had life-threatening consequences", ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels said today. "Such conduct is also blatantly misleading and deceptive in contravention of the Trade Practices Act.
"By Chubb Fire's own admission, it missed at least one annual alarm system test for approximately 80 per cent of its customers over the period 1996-1997. Some buildings received no annual service for either year. Buildings receiving no annual tests for either year included the Qantas Maintenance Hangar at Brisbane airport, Sinnamon Village, Women's and Grace Colleges at the University of Queensland, the Juhi Fuel Depot at Brisbane airport, Ansett Air Freight, Northside Christian College, Rothwell Nursing Home, Hibernian Nursing Home, Metway Bank, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, the Woolstore, Noosa Hotel/Motel and Coolangatta Catering.
"Over that period the company held contracts to service approximately 100 buildings in south east Queensland. Out of a total of $85,000 paid by customers for annual testing alone, the company will be refunding $58,000 for missed tests. These people took over $58,000 from their customers and did nothing in return. Chubb Fire did not appear to have adequate systems in place at the time to verify that services had been performed".
Chubb Fire estimate that their share of the market for the testing of fire systems in south-east Queensland is five per cent in the case of fire panels and between 1% and 1.5% for fixed systems.
The Federal Court ordered injunctions restraining Chubb Fire for three years from representing that it had the capacity or intention to provide services, or that such services were compliant with the Australian Standards, where this was not the case. Chubb Fire also provided Court-enforceable undertakings to the ACCC that it would:
- write to all customers identified as not having received contracted services and offer compensation;
- place two advertisements in the Courier Mail to alert previous customers to potential missed services;
- maintain a Management Control Program enabling it to monitor services it is to carry out; and
- upgrade its trade practices compliance program.
The ACCC also recently reached a settlement with Independent Fire Sprinklers Pty Ltd and Independent Fire Alarms Pty Ltd, following their admission that they failed to perform certain contracted sprinkler and alarm system services over the period between July 1993 and December 1998.
The ACCC did not bring Federal Court proceedings against Independent, but obtained Court-enforceable undertakings from Independent on similar terms to those provided by Chubb Fire.
The ACCC is continuing with its investigations into the conduct of another national company operating in Queensland.