Federal Court dismisses ‘barely arguable’ appeals from Latitude, Harvey Norman
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The news: The full federal court has unanimously dismissed “barely arguable” appeals from Latitude and Harvey Norman relating to misleading or false representations made through a joint advertising campaign between January 2020 and August 2021.
The context: On 18 October 2024, now-retired federal court justice David Yates found that Latitude and Harvey Norman engaged in misleading conduct and made false or misleading representations in relation to a national advertising campaign for a 60-month interest free and no deposit payment method for goods purchased at Harvey Norman stores.
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), which commenced proceedings against the two companies in October 2022, believed the advertisements masked that customers needed to take out a credit card, such as the Latitude Go Mastercard.
This would have required customers to pay monthly account service fees and, up to 15 March 2021, also establishment fees, the regulator said.
Latitude and Harvey Norman had argued that ordinary and reasonable consumers “would know it was too good to be true”, according to ASIC. The appeal hearing was held on 28 August 2025.
A hearing will be held at a later date for ASIC to seek pecuniary penalties, adverse publicity orders, an injunction and costs.
What they said: In their written judgement, delivered on 3 September, justices Michael O’Bryan, Elizabeth Cheeseman and Annabelle Bennett said it was “regrettable that the final determination of remedies in this proceeding has been delayed by the unmeritorious applications for leave to appeal”.
They added that “the decision of the primary judge is not attended by any real doubt and that the draft grounds of appeal lack merit and are barely arguable”.
ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said: “This is an important win for consumers. ASIC took this case because we believed many consumers were unaware of the financial arrangements they were entering into, and they deserved to be fully informed.”
The source: ASIC media release
