$3 Million Penalty Up Held

The Full Federal Court has up held the penalty appeal and determined that Employsure should pay a penalty of $3 million for misleading Google ads after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissions (ACCC) appeal.

Who is Employsure?

Employsure is a large, private company with offices in four capital cities in Australia that offers employment relations and work health and safety advice to business owners for a fee under contract. For scale, in the 2021 financial year, Employsure is alleged to have had over 23,500 clients. It doesn’t have any affiliation with

any government agency.

What went wrong?

Employsure had Google Ads which appeared in Google search results between August 2016 and August 2018, when consumers searched for “fair work ombudsman”, “fair work commission” and other associated terms. The ad featured headlines including “Fair Work Ombudsman Help - Free 24/7 Employer Advice” and “Fair Work Commission Advice - Free Employer Advice”.

Is an example in the article image. Perhaps you recall seeing this yourself? The ACCC received over 100 complaints regarding these misleading ads.This is the final chapter of a long litigation process.

Want to know the high level summary?

Here is the timeline of events.

December 2018

The ACCC initiated proceedings against Employsure Pty Ltd (Employsure) in December 2018, alleging Employsure had mislead consumers to believe that Employsure was or was affiliated, with a government agency, through their Google Ads published on Google search results pages.

October 2020

The Federal Court dismissed the ACCC’s case.

August 2021

The Full Federal Court unanimously upheald the appeal.

November 2021

The original Federal Court Judge imposed a $1 million penalty on Employsure for this conduct.

January 2022

The ACCC appealed this penalty decision.

February 2023

Back to today where the Full Federal Court has up held the ACCC penalty appeal and determined that Employsure should pay the $3 million penalty for misleading Google ads.

What’s the take away?

Business owners

1️⃣ Don’t be fooled, besides misleading ads, there are so many scams. Always type in www.fwc.gov.au for the Fair Work Commission and www.fwo.gov.au for the Fair Work Ombudsman.

2️⃣ The FWC and FWO are unlikely t

o call you, they will normally write you a letter or send you an email first. They will also provide you with appropriate identification of who they are.

3️⃣ Check for typos and things that just don’t look right. Call or email the authentic contact details provided on their website to confirm if you are not sure if something is legitimate.

Marketing

Chasing SEO (search engine optimisation) is great but it’s not everything - especially if the key words result in misleading ads. Your business could lose a lot in time, penalties, legal fees and last but not least, brand damage.