Catchwords

TRADE AND COMMERCE - TRADE PRACTICES AND RELATED MATTERS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - MISLEADING, DECEPTIVE OR UNCONSCIONABLE CONDUCT - PARTICULAR CLASSES OF CONDUCT - ADVERTISING AND RELATED PUBLICATION - where advertising material prepared for the sale of apartments in a complex that would be operated by the appellant as a hotel - where advertising material prepared by a third party - where it was necessary to obtain the appellant's consent to the content of any advertising material making use of the appellant's name or logo - where the appellant could not require the third party to publish the advertising material - where advertising material contained statements about the appellant's own opinions and expectations concerning the success of the complex - whether the appellant adopted the representations made by the third party - whether the third party served only as a medium through which the appellant made representations directly to potential consumers

TRADE AND COMMERCE - TRADE PRACTICES AND RELATED MATTERS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - OFFICERS OR AGENTS OF BODY CORPORATE - CONDUCT "ON BEHALF OF" - where a third party purported to communicate views of the appellant concerning the prospects of an apartment complex that the appellant was to operate as a hotel - where the third party communicated these views with the permission of the appellant - where the appellant had approved the content of the communications made on its behalf - whether conduct of third party was done in the course of the appellant's own business, affairs or activities - whether the respondent's pleadings were sufficient to invoke s 84(2) Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) - whether conduct of third party engaged in "on behalf of" the appellant

TRADE AND COMMERCE - TRADE PRACTICES AND RELATED MATTERS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - MISLEADING, DECEPTIVE OR UNCONSCIONABLE CONDUCT - CHARACTER AND ATTRIBUTES OF CONDUCT - RELIANCE - where the appellant had approved the inclusion of certain content in advertising material offering the opportunity to purchase an apartment in a new property development - where it was held that this amounted to 'conduct' for the purposes of s 52 Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) - where the appellant submitted that the respondents could not be shown to have entered into purchase in reliance on this conduct because they acted unreasonably on the erroneous assumption that the advertising material had actually been produced by the appellant - whether that was true nature of erroneous assumption held by the respondents - whether the response of the respondents to the advertising material was reasonable in the circumstances

TRADE AND COMMERCE - TRADE PRACTICES AND RELATED MATTERS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - MISLEADING, DECEPTIVE OR UNCONSCIONABLE CONDUCT - CHARACTER AND ATTRIBUTES OF CONDUCT - REPRESENTATIONS - IN GENERAL - where advertising material alleged to contain representations that the appellant considered that a particular property development was a "guaranteed success", that the appellant was offering a rental guarantee, that the appellant's opinion as to the quality of the investment could be relied upon and that the property development would be a good investment by reason of its association with the appellant - whether these representations would have been conveyed to reasonable people who could be expected to have read the whole of the advertising material - whether the disclaimers contained in the advertising material qualified any of these representations

TRADE AND COMMERCE - TRADE PRACTICES AND RELATED MATTERS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - MISLEADING, DECEPTIVE OR UNCONSCIONABLE CONDUCT - CHARACTER AND ATTRIBUTES OF CONDUCT - PUFFERY - where representation made by the appellant that a property development would be a "guaranteed success" - whether phrase "guaranteed success" can be construed as a puff - whether representation was misleading and deceptive because the appellant never actually held the view that the success of the development was guaranteed

TRADE AND COMMERCE - TRADE PRACTICES AND RELATED MATTERS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - MISLEADING, DECEPTIVE OR UNCONSCIONABLE CONDUCT - CHARACTER AND ATTRIBUTES OF CONDUCT - REPRESENTATIONS - AS TO FUTURE MATTERS - where advertising material for a new property development offered a rental guarantee to purchasers of apartments in the development - where material contained representation that the appellant considered that the future performance of rent guarantee obligations by a third party was assured - where material also contained representation that the appellant considered that the purchase of an apartment would be a good investment because of the appellant's association with the project - whether the appellant had adduced evidence disclosing reasonable grounds for the making of these representations as to future matters - whether the fact that the appellant had led some evidence in this regard was sufficient to shift the onus of proof back to the respondents

TRADE AND COMMERCE - TRADE PRACTICES AND RELATED MATTERS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - MISLEADING, DECEPTIVE OR UNCONSCIONABLE CONDUCT - CHARACTER AND ATTRIBUTES OF CONDUCT - KNOWLEDGE OR INTENTION - where trial judge had found the appellant to have been knowingly concerned in the making of certain misleading representations contained in the advertising material relating to a new property development - where the representations made were that the appellant considered the development to be a "guaranteed success" and that the appellant would be offering a rent guarantee - where it was admitted that the appellant was aware of the terms of the representations and that the representations would be published - whether the appellant had knowledge of facts that would allow the representations to be characterised as misleading