Media Super fined for misleading advertising

Media Super has paid a $10,200 penalty to comply with an ASIC infringement notice after producing potentially misleading advertisements.
Media Super published the ads as a factsheet in September 2012. The factsheet titled ‘Self-managed super? You be the judge’, compared the costs and benefits of self-managed super funds with the Media Super fund. It appeared on Media Super’s website and was sent to all fund members.
ASIC was concerned that the factsheet inaccurately represented the costs and benefits of the Media Super funds compared to self-managed super funds.
ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer said ASIC was serious about making sure investors were confident and informed and that meant cracking down on misleading or inaccurate advertising.
He said that Media Super had acted quickly to remove the statements from its website once approached by ASIC, and had fully cooperated in responding to ASIC’s concerns.
The payment of an infringement notice is not an admission of a contravention of the ASIC Act consumer protection provisions. ASIC can issue an infringement notice where it has reasonable grounds to believe a person has contravened certain consumer protection laws.