When the promise of 'interest-free' becomes a door to undisclosed obligations, the gap between what is said and what is owed becomes a measure of institutional honesty. Australia's Federal Court this week placed that measure squarely on Harvey Norman and Latitude Finance, ordering a combined $55 million penalty for a national advertising campaign that invited millions of consumers into a credit arrangement without adequately revealing its true cost. The ruling — ASIC's largest ever for deceptive financial marketing — affirms that the fine print is not a technicality but a matter of trust, and
Harvey Norman, Latitude fined record $55M for misleading interest-free ads
Millions of consumers were misled into credit arrangements with undisclosed fees, with individual customers incurring at least $537 in hidden costs over the five-year payment period.