Interest fee: Harvey Norman and Latitude fined $55m

A simple instalment deal that was not so simple

Harvey Norman and Latitude Finance Australia were ordered to pay a combined $55 million in penalties on 28 July 2026, after the Federal Court found their joint national advertising campaign misled shoppers about what a 60-month interest-free offer actually involved.^[1] The ads presented the arrangement as straightforward instalments, with no mention of what was waiting in the fine print.

Consumers who signed up to the GO Mastercard between 16 March 2021 and 11 August 2021 and used the 60-month interest-free method would have been liable to pay at least $537 in fees on top of their purchase amount.verifiedVerified Source: asic.gov.au^[1] The court found the advertisements misrepresented the deal as interest-free payments and failed to disclose that customers were required to take out a credit card and pay mandatory charges on top.^[2]

A campaign that reached millions

The Federal Court judgment recorded that the newspaper ads appeared in 168 publications, the radio ads on 143 stations, and the television ads on at least 900,000 occasions across 367 stations.verifiedVerified Source: judgments.fedcourt.gov.au^[2] The campaign ran thousands of times across Australia between January 2020 and August 2021, and was viewed by millions of Australians.^[1]

That reach shaped the court's view of how serious the conduct was. A misleading message broadcast hundreds of thousands of times across nearly every commercial television station in the country is a different matter from a one-off slip.

How the court set the penalties

Justice O'Bryan found that Harvey Norman and Latitude "were equally responsible for the contravening advertisements".^[1] Equal responsibility did not produce equal penalties. Harvey Norman's $35 million exceeded Latitude's $20 million because the retailer showed a lower level of contrition and its chairman's public statements demonstrated disregard for consumer harm, factors the judge weighed in setting a penalty that would deter repetition and push both companies toward better compliance.^[1]

The $15 million gap between the two penalties is its own message. Courts look beyond the conduct itself to how a company and its leadership respond after the fact, and the record that senior figures create in their own words.

ASIC's reading of the result

ASIC Chair Sarah Court said the outcome sent a direct message to any business marketing financial products. Court said the case was "about integrity in consumer finance marketing" and that "consumers were entitled to know that this offer involved more than simply paying for their purchase in 60 instalments", adding that the advertising encouraged consumers into an ongoing credit arrangement that carried additional costs and obligations.^[1]

Court said businesses must give consumers "a clear and accurate picture of the products they are promoting and the costs that come with them".^[1] ASIC said the combined $55 million penalty is one of the highest it has obtained for misleading conduct and false or misleading representations relating to financial products and services.verifiedVerified Source: asic.gov.au^[1]

What affected customers receive, and what comes next

Customers who signed up during the campaign period will not receive direct compensation under any scheme announced alongside the judgment. Both Harvey Norman and Latitude were ordered to publish corrective advertising notices prominently on their homepages for 90 days, a remedy aimed at reaching anyone who may have acted on the original claims.^[1]

Under Australian law, it is unlawful to engage in misleading or deceptive conduct or to make false or misleading representations about financial products, and ASIC can seek corrective advertising orders alongside civil penalties when businesses fail to disclose the true cost of financial offers.^[2] The 90-day corrective notice period on both companies' homepages began with the 28 July 2026 judgment.