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Consumer Help
What is Group Buying?
Group buying is a relatively new phenomenon in Australia that is providing consumers with access to new products and services at great rates.
Group buying offers products and services at significantly reduced prices usually on the condition that a minimum number of buyers make the purchase.
Group buying offers benefits to both consumers and merchants. Consumers, such as yourself, benefit from being able to access discounts on compelling activities and experiences. Merchants benefit from being able to access new customers and promote their business to a broader audience.
This new way of accessing products and services is so popular that group buying is rapidly growing.
It has recently been reported that the group buying industry will account for more than $400m in revenue in 2011.
About the Australian Group Buying Code of Conduct?
As the group buying industry grows into an established channel the industry has recognised the importance of coming together to develop a code of conduct that is specific to the group buying experience.
As a result the Australian Group Buying Code of Conduct was released on 2 November 2011.
The Australian Group Buying Code of Conduct has been developed to:
- ensure that consumers, such as yourself, have access to products and service information you need to make informed choices
- give you additional confidence that the signatory organisation that you are dealing with will act in a fair, honest, ethical way
- give you additional confidence that the group buying industry is compliant with relevant laws including the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, Privacy Act 1988 including the National Privacy Principles and the Spam Act 2003
- provide you with the ability to raise issues with the confidence that your complaint will be treated fairly and in an honest and ethical way
The Australian Group Buying Code of Conduct includes an independent, transparent and open complaint-handling process. The complaint handling process will be managed by the ADMA Code Authority.
Leading Australian group buying organisations have shown support for this initiative by becoming signatories to the code.
Signatories include:
What can I do if I have a problem with a Group Buying company?
If you have a problem with a Group Buying company then the first thing you should do is contact them and try to resolve the issue with them.
The contact details of Group Buying companies that are signatories to the Australian Group Buying Code of Conduct are
- Cudo - www.cudo.com.au/help or customersupport@cudo.com.au
- Deals.com.au - www.deals.com.au/info/contact-us
- Jump On It - support@jumponit.com or phone 1800 586 766
- Living Social - au.help@livingsocial.com.au or phone 1800 548 762
- Groupon - support@groupon.com.au or www.groupon.com.au/contact
- Ouffer - www.ouffer.com/contactus
- Our Deal - support@ourdeal.com.au
- Scoopon - helpcenter.scoopon.com.au
- Spreets - support@spreets.com.au
If you have already contacted the company involved and your issue hasn't been satisfactorily resolved then you can make a complaint under the Australian Group Buying Code of Conduct.
