Crazydomains owner fined for so-called "subscription traps"

Dreamscape Networks, owner of Crazydomains.com.au, has been fined for hiding subscriptions behind products billed on its website as free trials.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced the $56,340 fines today, alleging the company had made “false or misleading representations” about the two so-called free products, as well about its domain privacy product.

The ACCC said between October 2019 and July 2023, Crazydomains advertised a “three month website builder” and an additional domain registration as free gifts, and automatically added them to customers’ shopping carts.

However, both products included an auto-renewal, meaning that at the end of the free period, customers would be charged fees.

The competition regulator said the company failed to make it clear to customers at the point of sale.

“In this case, consumers may have believed they were receiving a free product in addition to the one they were purchasing because they were not given clear information about ongoing subscription costs for these so-called free products," ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said.

“Subscription traps are an area of concerning conduct and the ACCC will not hesitate to take action against businesses that utilise these tactics in breach of the Australian Consumer Law."

The ACCC’s other complaint related to the company’s domain privacy product, available for buyers of a .au domain, that it said would lock accounts down from hijacking and hide the customer’s personal information.

However, between October 2019 and November 2023, “consumers that purchased the domain privacy product were sold a different product that did not hide contact names or email addresses from the public domain,” the ACCC said.