If you own or manage a comparator website, you will be aware that the ACCC last year carried out a review of the comparator website industry in Australia. Whilst on the whole the review concluded that comparator websites can provide important benefits to both consumers and businesses, there was concern that poor conduct by some website operators could undermine those benefits and breach obligations under the Competition and Consumer ACT 2010 in relation to potentially misleading or deceptive conduct.

As a result, the ACCC has issued a Comparator Websites guide for comparator website operators and suppliers which highlights three key principles:-

Principle 1 – Facilitate honest, like for like comparisons
Principle 2 – Be transparent about commercial relationships
Principle 3 – Clearly disclose who and what is being compared.

The full guide offers extremely useful guidance for comparator website operators and their suppliers and can be found here https://www.accc.gov.au/publications/comparator-websites-a-guide-for-comparator-website-operators-and-suppliers. The ACCC has also issued guidance for consumers of comparator websites here https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/online-shopping/comparator-websites