South Australian telco reseller Excite Mobile has been fined $455,000 for misleading and coercing its customers.
The penalty follows a Federal Court ruling in April which found the carrier acted unscrupulously by creating a fake debt collection agency and fake complaints body, and misrepresenting the scope of its mobile coverage. The legal action was initiated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Additionally, directors Obie Brown and David Samuel were each handed $55,000 and $45,000 in fines respectively, while another employee, Fiona Smart, was fined $3500. All three have been ordered to pay the ACCC's costs.
Directors Brown and Samuel were also banned from managing a company for three and two-and-a-half years respectively.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the ruling will "signal that individual company directors will also personally be held to account when they are involved in sales and debt collection practices by the company that contravene consumer protection laws".
Injunctions have been placed on all three parties prohibiting them from engaging in similar conduct for seven years.
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