{"id":481,"date":"2018-11-13T03:05:27","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T03:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=481"},"modified":"2018-11-13T03:05:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T03:05:27","slug":"accc-action-against-captain-cook-college-for-alleged-systemic-unconscionable-conduct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2018\/11\/13\/accc-action-against-captain-cook-college-for-alleged-systemic-unconscionable-conduct\/","title":{"rendered":"ACCC action against Captain Cook College for alleged systemic unconscionable conduct"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ACCC has instituted Federal Court proceedings against Productivity Partners Pty Ltd, trading as Captain Cook College, alleging systemic unconscionable conduct in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.
\nThe ACCC alleges that from 7 September 2015, Captain Cook College removed consumer safeguards from its enrolment and withdrawal processes for online courses to improve its financial performance.
\n\u201cWe allege that Captain Cook College engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct designed to maximise profit at the expense of their students,\u201d ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said.
\n\u201cWe are very concerned by Captain Cook College\u2019s decision to make process changes that we will submit removed consumer safeguards. We allege that this significantly reduced the College\u2019s ability to detect misconduct by its sales agents and assess a consumer\u2019s suitability or participation in the course they had been enrolled in.\u201d
\n\u201cWe further allege that the removal of consumer safeguards increased the number of students that Captain Cook College enrolled and who remained enrolled, allowing the College to increase VET FEE-HELP payments from the Commonwealth,\u201d Ms Court said.
\nApproximately 5,500 affected consumers whose enrolment was processed during the period from 7 September 2015 have VET FEE-HELP debt, totalling over $60 million. Around 98% of those 5,500 consumers failed to complete any part of the course they were enrolled in, and around 86% never even logged in to their online course.
\nIn these proceedings, it is also alleged that Captain Cook College made false or misleading representations, engaged in unconscionable conduct and failed to provide unsolicited consumer agreement protections in its dealings with four individual consumers.
\nThe ACCC has also alleged that Ian Cook (former Captain Cook College CEO), Site Group International Limited (Site, the parent company of Captain Cook College) and Blake Wills (former COO of Site) were knowingly concerned in Captain Cook College\u2019s systemic unconscionable conduct.
\n\u201cWe will not hesitate to take appropriate action against businesses and executives who treat consumers unconscionably in breach of the Australian Consumer Law,\u201d Ms Court said.
\nThe ACCC is seeking pecuniary penalties, declarations, corrective notices, adverse publicity orders, finding of fact orders and orders requiring the implementation of a consumer law compliance program, as well as costs. The ACCC is also seeking orders disqualifying Ian Cook and Blake Wills from managing corporations.
\nConsumers with concerns about their VET provider can contact the VET Student Loans Ombudsman atwww.ombudsman.gov.au\/vslo(link is external)<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and complete the online complaint form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ACCC has instituted Federal Court proceedings against Productivity Partners Pty Ltd, trading as Captain Cook College, alleging systemic unconscionable conduct in breach of the Australian Consumer Law. The ACCC alleges that from 7 September 2015, Captain Cook College removed consumer safeguards from its enrolment and withdrawal processes for online courses to improve its financial … Continue reading “ACCC action against Captain Cook College for alleged systemic unconscionable conduct”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}