Misleading Warehouse ads
October 23, 2012
CHEMIST Warehouse has found
itself in hot water after the
Supreme Court of Queensland
found that advertisements its
pharmacies placed in two
newspapers were likely to mislead
or deceive, in contravention of
section 18 of the Australian
Consumer Law.
The court action was instigated
by a Cairns pharmacy and a Gold
Coast pharmacy against Chemist
Warehouse pharmacies in each of
those cities.
Published in The Cairns Post
newspaper on 14 June 2012 and
the Gold Coast Bulletin on 2 June
2012 the advertisements promoted
the availability of Atorvastatin
generic medicines at discounted
prices, with the offer valid until 01
July 2012.
In hearings held this week the
Supreme Court ruled that the
advertisements were likely to
mislead or deceive by: (a) listing
prices for the supply of Atorvastatin
Sandoz, Lipitor and Trovas, being
medicines on the PBS Schedule, to
members of the public without
identifying that: (i) while the supply
of Lipitor to a person at the listed
price of $35.40 could be taken into
account for the purposes of
determining the person’s (and the
person’s family’s) eligibility to be
issued with a concession card
under Division 1A of the National
Health Act 1953; (ii) the supply of
Atorvastatin Sandoz at $14.99 or
Trovas at $19.99 could not be taken
into account for that purpose.
In addition the Court found that
the advertisements were also likely
to mislead or deceive by stating
that the frequency of supply of
Atorvastatin Sandoz or Trovas at
those prices would be governed by
standard PBS regulations, when
supplies of those products at those
prices would not be supplied under
the PBS.
Despite its finding however, the
Court did not grant an injunction
against the pharmacies due to the
fact that it found they had no
intention to mislead or deceive
(based on evidence given by the
Group Commercial Manager of the
respondent Chemist Warehouse
pharmacies).
The injunction was also declined
because the Court had no reason to
assume the pharmacies would not
give proper regard to the terms of
the judgment in any future
advertisements.
Meanwhile, the decision has been
welcomed by the Pharmacy Guild
of Australia.
“The Guild supports full and open
information for consumers about
their PBS medicines, and a level
playing field for the supply of PBS
medicines through appropriate
regulatory arrangements,” the
Guild said in a statement.
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