The corporate watchdog has issued a warning against price comparison websites for allegedly misleading consumers.
The watchdog also warned consumers about service agreements, ensuring they don't sign away private data.
While comparison websites are a good place to start for prices and services information, consumers should conduct deeper research, Australian Securities and Investments Commission commissioner Alan Kirkland said.
The watchdog launched a case on Friday against lead-generating business Clark Family Pty Ltd, which offers free online assessments for loans and insurance products.
4 sentences from our version of the report,
chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below.
How
Summarized version
The Federal Court recently found comparison site Choosi misled consumers over four years from mid-2019 after claiming to compare a slew of funeral and life insurance policies.
Headline check
The one thing this headline claims is in the report.
Figures, names and quoted words in the headline, looked for in the report itself — not in the summary above. One claim in this headline could be checked, so this is a narrow pass and not a thorough one. How this is checked
The article, shortened and in plain language
The corporate watchdog has issued a warning against price comparison websites for allegedly misleading consumers.
ASIC has launched multiple court actions regarding the range of products offered and sites promoting multiple leads from a single brand.
The watchdog also warned consumers about service agreements, ensuring they don't sign away private data.
Australians hunting bargains on comparison websites risk being duped by sites that only offer a selection of preferred providers.
While comparison websites are a good place to start for prices and services information, consumers should conduct deeper research, Australian Securities and Investments Commission commissioner Alan Kirkland said.
The Federal Court recently found comparison site Choosi misled consumers over four years from mid-2019 after claiming to compare a slew of funeral and life insurance policies, when Hannover Life Re issued all but one of the policies offered.
Every single policy in question was distributed by Greenstone Financial Services, a company linked with Choosi.
The watchdog launched a case on Friday against lead-generating business Clark Family Pty Ltd, which offers free online assessments for loans and insurance products.
"In reality, consumers' inquiries were (allegedly) sold to the highest-bidding broker," Mr Kirkland said.
Shortened to 1 minute
of reading, this version reads 7.1 on the Niral Score.
You are reading our version, not theirs.
This is ABC News (Business)'s report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with
verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives
that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations
are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure
this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.
How this outlet filed it, and how we rewrote it
No other newsroom we read has filed on this event, so there is nothing to compare it with yet.
Readers can ask a question about this story here.
Questions and answers are for subscribers.
Sign in
to read them.
Comments are read before they appear where anything in them needs a person to look.
Nothing posted here is ever deleted; a comment taken down keeps its text and the reason,
so the decision can be looked at again. How this works