Australian Securities and Investments Commission - Complaining about companies or people

How to complain about companies or people

If your complaint concerns a product or service you have purchased, you should first raise your complaint with the business or person who provided you with the goods or services you are complaining about.

If you cannot resolve the problem with them, or if your complaint is about misconduct or illegal activity by a company or person, then ASIC may be one of a number of government and non-government organisations able to help you.

To resolve your problem quickly it is important to find the right organisation to help you. A simple check now can prevent delays later. The questions below will help you to decide who can deal with your complaint.

Information about whistleblowing
Complaining about ASIC decisions or officers

.Question 1

Is your complaint about any aspect of a financial service or product such as superannuation, managed funds, financial advice, insurance, credit or deposit accounts?

If you can’t resolve your complaint with the firm, you should take it to an independent complaint scheme.

Visit our consumer website, FIDO for more guidance on how to complain about a financial product or service and to get a copy of our brochure 'You can complain'

.Question 2

Does your complaint involve either:

a business that is not a registered company (ie it does not have an ACN), for example, about unpaid debts
faulty or unsafe goods
residential tenancy
consumer credit (ie not credit for investment purposes or lending to any business); or
non-financial services?

If so, these are dealt with by State government consumer bodies. Contact the consumer agency in your state:

ACT: www.fairtrading.act.gov.au
NSW: www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au
NT: www.caba.nt.gov.au
QLD: www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au
SA: www.ocba.sa.gov.au
TAS: www.consumer.tas.gov.au
VIC: www.consumer.vic.gov.au
WA: www.docep.wa.gov.au

.Question 3

Is your complaint about prices, competition, unfair market practices, product safety, franchises or advertising?

If so, you should contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) or State Government consumer bodies. For more information visit the ACCC website or your State consumer agency listed above.

.Question 4

orange arrow Is your complaint about the financial soundness of banks, other financial institutions, superannuation funds or insurance companies?

If so, you should contact the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

.Question 5

orange arrow Is your complaint, question or concern about your employer and your wages or conditions?

If so, visit the Commonwealth Government site Australian Workplace for more information.

.Question 6

Is your complaint about a financial scam?

If so, you can make a formal complaint using our complaint form.

Find out more about how to report a scam on our consumer website, FIDO.

Some scams use the language of "financial investments", but they are outside ASIC's responsibilities because they involve sales offers for non-financial consumer goods and services.

Examples of these are "Nigerian" scams, lottery scams and pyramid marketing schemes.
You can report these scams on the ACCC's SCAMwatch website.

What types of complaints can ASIC deal with?

We deal with complaints about misconduct or illegal activity concerning:

How company directors and officers manage their companies
Incorrect or late release of company information to the market
Raising money from the public
A company continuing to trade while unable to pay its debts
How company administrators, liquidators or auditors perform their duties
A takeover or company restructure
Information or advice given to you about investments, superannuation, insurance, deposits
Misleading or deceptive conduct in advertising or selling a financial product or service
Misleading or deceptive conduct to do with borrowing money, and
Financial scams.

If your complaint involves any of these, it is one that ASIC may be able to investigate.

Please send us details of your complaint on our complaint form. You can send us your complaint online, by mail or fax.

Filling in the complaint form

Before you begin, gather together documents or letters about your complaint. You may need to refer to them to answer some of the questions in the complaint form.

Sending your complaint online
Fill in our online complaint form and send your complaint to us electronically. You will be able to view, save and print a copy of your completed complaint.

If for any reason you are unable to finish your complaint in a single session you can resume your complaint at a later time.

Our online form will run as a secure internet session to ensure the confidentiality of your information.

Sending your complaint by mail or fax
You can also print a copy of our complaint form (PDF file, 124KB) and post or fax your complaint to us.

Post your form to
ASIC Complaints
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
PO Box 9149
Traralgon Vic 3844

Or fax it to
Australia (03) 5177 3749
International + 61 3 5177 3749

What will happen with your complaint?
We record your complaint and look carefully at what you have told us. We aim to understand the facts and to see if the law has been broken. ASIC can only act if the law has been broken.

We weigh every complaint we receive against four basic questions:

What legal action can we take?
Is the evidence likely to be sufficient?
Which complaint is the most urgent and serious?
If we succeed, will people behave better in the future?

We often receive complaints from consumers who want help getting their money back. Even if we believe there has been misconduct, we generally won't be able to recover money for you. Often you will need to get your own professional advice.

Your complaint counts
Your complaint:

Tells us which people and what problems are giving trouble to consumers, investors and creditors
Suggest targets for surveillance and inspections
Helps us select cases for possible criminal or civil action
Guides us on the warning and advice we give.

Getting help
If you need more information please call our Infoline on 1300 300 630 or email them at infoline@asic.gov.au.

ASIC Website: Printed 10/12/2008

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