The Federal Court has found that Auscha Corporation and its former marketing manager, Nagarajah Rajkumar, made misleading claims about its Enersonic Power Saver device.The ACCC alleged that Auscha had made a number of false or misleading representations about the Power Saver in breach of the Trade Practices Act 1974. ACCC said that the Power Saver, a power factor correction capacitor, does not actually reduce the real electrical power consumed by a domestic user.

The court has found that the Power Saver was not capable of reducing the amount of electrical power consumed by domestic consumers as measured by retail electricity suppliers and did not save money by using the power saver.

As a result, the court has issued injunctions restraining Auscha and Mr Rajkumar from engaging in similar conduct in the future and made orders that Auscha publish a corrective notice on its website, send a letter to customers affected by the conduct, and pay a contribution towards the ACCC’s court costs.

ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel said today: “These actions demonstrate the ACCC’s concern to ensure that consumers are not misled into believing that products will save them money on energy costs when this is untrue. Suppliers of these types of devices are on notice that the ACCC is on the look-out for those who want to make spurious energy saving claims and should take immediate steps to review their marketing material or they may face similar action.”