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Australia: TomTom, Navman and Garmin forced to remove “lifetime” claims

By  |  January 23, 2019


Three manufactures of consumer GPS navigation products , Tom Tom, Navman and Garmin,  have ceased using “lifetime” claims in their advertising, after concerns were raised by the watchdog, the ACCC, that the statements were potentially false, misleading or deceptive.

The lifetime claims came with disclaimers and provisions, which ACCC commissioner Sarah Court said was out of step with how consumers would interpret and understand the phrase.

Tom Tom’s claim was “Lifetime Tom Tom traffic”, while Navman guaranteed “Lifetime FREE maps”, and Garmin promised both free lifetime maps and traffic.

“We believe these statements about ‘lifetime’ services made by these GPS manufacturers were inconsistent with what consumers would understand ‘lifetime’ to mean,” Court said.

“Consumers would have rightly expected to receive those services for the lifetime of the device, without the manufacturer being able to unilaterally terminate the commitment.”

Full Content: ACCC

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