Auckland Academy of Learning charged over education software sales practices

Thursday 2nd June 2016

The Commerce Commission has charged Auckland Academy of Learning over the way it sold education software packages, saying staff misrepresented the product and breached consumer credit and direct selling laws.

The regulator received more than 180 complaints, largely after a series of stories aired on the now-defunct TV3 programme, Campbell Live, between 2014 and 2015 over the way Academy of Learning sold computer aided mathematic instruction (CAMI) software, it said in a statement. The commission says the Auckland-based company was invited into people's homes so school-aged children could get a complimentary tutoring session when in fact the Academy of Learning staff wanted to sell them CAMI.

The regulator has charged the company for failing to tell customers they had a right to cancel the uninvited direct sales agreement before it was entered into, that Academy of Learning failed to disclose key information about credit provided for the software, and that the price paid was misrepresented in some cases.

Academy of Learning is owned by its sole director, Gordon McPherson, and holds a distribution licence for the CAMI software in New Zealand.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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