Australia Tomtom Navman Tender

Three manufacturers of consumer GPS navigation products have agreed to stop using lifetime claims in their advertising of navigation services after the ACCC raised concerns these statements were potentially false misleading or deceptive.TomTom ANZ Pty Ltd TomTom MiTac Australia Pty Ltd Navman and Garmin Australasia Pty Ltd Garmin each made lifetime claims in marketing on their websites on packaging and point-of-sale marketing and in retailers catalogues and websites. Examples of the statements includedTomTom Lifetime TomTom TrafficNavman Lifetime FREE Maps Never worry about maps again. Updated quarterly you will always stay up to date with our Lifetime FREE Maps including updates to safety alerts at no additional cost andGarmin Free Lifetime Maps Traffic.Despite these statements TomTom Navman and Garmin each retained the discretion to stop providing these services before the end of the lifetime of the device in certain circumstances. The ACCC considered these limitations were not communicated to consumers in a prominent way. We believe the statements about lifetime services made by these GPS manufacturers were inconsistent with what consumers would understand lifetime to mean ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said.Consumers would have rightly expected to receive those services for the lifetime of the device without the manufacturer being able to unilaterally terminate the commitment Ms Court said.Businesses must not deceive or mislead consumers in advertising whether through small print or by using ill-defined broad terms like lifetime and they should take care to use terms that match the understanding of consumers.We also encourage consumers to invoke their consumer rights if they believe they have been misled or are not getting what they paid for.TomTom Navman and Garmin which are three of the biggest GPS manufacturers in Australia have agreed to amend their statements on all future advertising and marketing materials including packaging.