Solar installer hit with multi-million dollar fine
A Victorian solar installer and its director have been hit with more than $3 million in penalties for breaching Australian Consumer Law.
The Federal Court found Vic Solar Technologies used “misleading” and “aggressive” sales tactics to convince customers to sign up for solar deals.
The case ensures solar retailers doing the right thing are not unfairly disadvantaged and encourages consumers to make complaints if they believe any companies to be conducting illegitimate business.
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Vic Solar and director Sunny Srinivasan were found to have breached consumer law thousands of times between June 2014 and December 2018.
After using aggressive sales tactics to convince customers to buy solar PV systems, Vic Solar charged up to $6000 above going market rate for the systems.
Vic Solar used people third-party employees to generate sales leads by door knocking, advertised a false ‘community bulk-buy’ of solar PV systems, and used the details of those who registered interest to engage in door-to-door sales that breached unsolicited consumer agreement laws.
Customers were not informed about cooling-off rights, cooling-off periods were not respected before work began, and the company claimed there was a fake “community bulk-buy” of solar PV systems.
The Federal Court handed down a $3 million penalty to Vic Solar Technologies and its director Sunny Srinivasan was ordered to pay $450,000 in penalties and banned from managing corporations for at least five years.
The company has also been excluded from the Victorian Government’s Solar Homes Program.