The Federal Court has restrained Mayfair 101 from promoting its debenture products and prohibited the company from using specific words and phrases in its advertising.
The Australian company was taken to the Federal Court last week by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) after allegedly producing misleading and deceptive online advertisements.
Mayfair 101, a property investor currently engaged in a $1.6 billion redevelopment of Far North Queensland's Dunk Island, allegedly represented two debenture products as being term deposits in ads online.
Yesterday Justice Anderson of the Federal Court restrained Mayfair Platinum and Mayfair 101 from all advertising, promotion and marketing of Mayfair debenture products until further order.
Additionally, the Court has restrained the two groups from using a range of phrases in any advertising, promotion or marketing of any products including:
- "term deposit";
- "bank deposit";
- "capital growth";
- "certainty";
- "fixed term"; and
- "term investment".
Mayfair 101 and Mayfair Platinum must also post a lengthy notice on their websites and give a copy of the statement to any prospective new investor declaring that the debenture is not a term deposit.
The Court declined to restrain Mayfair from issuing and accepting new investments in the Mayfair debenture products.
Earlier this week Mayfair 101 said ASIC's action had the potential to delay or halt its revitalisation project at Dunk Island and Mission Beach.
"The proceedings brought by ASIC seek to injunct Mayfair 101 from issuing two of its key financial products," said a Mayfair 101 spokesperson.
"If they are successful in doing so, this will delay Mayfair 101's ability to raise capital to progress the project in line with its original timelines. We are confident that our case is strong given the Group is compliant. However the proceedings do consume unnecessary resource."
Never miss a news update, subscribe here. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
Business News Australia
Get our daily business news
Sign up to our free email news updates.
Help us deliver quality journalism to you.
As a free and independent news site providing daily updates
during a period of unprecedented challenges for businesses everywhere
we call on your support