Overview

• Justice Patrick O’Sullivan condemned the conduct as extremely serious and appalling, noting many affected customers were First Nations and vulnerable.
• Roughly 400 people were sold unwanted or unaffordable products from 2019 to 2023, leaving some with significant debt and distress.
• The ACCC brought the case after referrals from financial counsellors, and the court approved the penalty Optus agreed to in June.
• Financial Counselling Australia criticized the sanction as inadequate for a large company, calling for stronger protections for vulnerable consumers.
• The order comes as Optus probes a recent triple‑0 outage that blocked emergency calls for hours across three states and has been linked in reports to four deaths.