Ray White (Real Estate) Pty Ltd trading as Ray White Investor services - s.87B undertaking

In July 1999 Ray White (Real Estate) Pty Ltd trading as Ray White Investor Services published an advertisement in the July edition of the Express in Townsville. The advertisement promoted the theme of beating the GST and was titled 'Property investors beat GST'.

The ACCC formed the view that the representations contained within the advertisement represented that the price of new homes and land would rise by up to 15% once the Goods and Services Tax was introduced, whereas the ACCC believes that the actual position would be that the introduction of the 10% GST and the removal of the wholesale tax on various inputs, would be likely to result in an increase in the price of new homes and land by less than 10%.

As such, the ACCC formed the view that Ray White (Real Estate) Pty Ltd may have engaged in misleading conduct in contravention of section 52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

In the Undertaking Ray White (Real Estate) Pty Ltd has:

• Admitted that the making of the representation in question constituted a contravention of section 52 of the Act;
• Provided undertakings as to future conduct;
• Undertaken to publish a corrective advertisement;
• and Undertaken to institute a trade practices corporate compliance program.