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I would like to make a complaint in relation to 'Cap' plans offered by the major Australian mobile phone companies. I believe that 'Cap' plans are designed to confuse consumers and fall under the definition of Misleading or deceptive conduct under the TRADE PRACTICES ACT 1974 - SECT 52.

Essentially my complaint revolves around the deceptive way the phone companies skew the meaning of Australian currency.

For example a phone company charges $59 dollars per month for a mobile service that provides $350 worth of calls. The $350 has no correlation to the actual value 350 Australian Dollars yet the value of the service measured and advertised in Australian dollars.

Paying for a mobile phone service consists of exchanging Australian dollars for minutes spent on the phone and megabytes of data. In other countries mobile service is sold in a natural easy to understand way. Dollars for minutes. The Australian phone companies have introduced an extra layer between what you pay and what you receive consisting of an arbitrary virtual currency that makes understanding the value of different plans almost impossible.

Worse still they call their arbitrary virtual currency Australian dollars.

I would like to know if the ACCC has a position on this practice.

Kind Regards
Jared Kells