A medical practice gets into hot water over increasing charges for faxes and linking it to the carbon price.
We've heard of taxi fares, gym fees, even the cost of weddings being linked to the carbon price, but this is the first time we've heard about the cost of faxing being blamed on the carbon price.
A regional Queensland medical practice found itself getting undue attention last week after reportedly "increasing charges for facsimile messages" that competition watchdog the ACCC said were "inappropriately linked to the carbon price".
While the medical practice wasn't named in the ACCC media statement, it's a timely reminder that even the smallest of price changes aren't immune from rules about blaming price increases on the carbon tax.
While stressing that the number of complaints about carbon prices are only 6% of the total complaints received by the ACCC in the 100 days since the carbon price scheme came in, the watchdog still singled out the following cases (information quoted from the ACCC media release):
- A New South Wales flying school raising tuition fees due to the carbon price with concerns over full attribution.
- A WA refrigerant gas supplier passing on price increases that in the ACCCs view may have attributed all the increase to the carbon price, when this was not the case.
The ACCC states that it expects and "increasing focus on retail electricity carbon price claims" with quarterly electricity bills due.
