Welcome to 2023. Must be time to renew some business names.
Registry Australia Pty Ltd has been sending unsolicited mail (physical) to Australian businesses for some time and it appears they will unless the government changes the guidelines to stamp this behavior out.
Their letters could appear at first glance to be a renewal notice for your Australian Business Name Registration but are in fact an unsolicited commercial offer for them to renew it for you with an extra fee.
They are able to do this as a private service provider (PSP).
Business names can be registered or renewed directly with the Australian Securities and Investment Commision (ASIC) on their website.
https://asic.gov.au/for-business/renewing-your-business-name/
The current rates are one year for $39 or three years for $92
Registry Australia Pty Ltd is offering to renew your business name for you for $99 for one year or $199 for three years.
This doesn’t seem like very good value. Speaking of cost, ASIC states that PSPs must:
Set out your fees
Ensure that information given to customers about fees you charge clearly separate fees charged by ASIC, and service fees charged by you as a service provider.
Registry Australia Pty Ltd is only listing a combined fee for renewal which does not meet ASIC requirements.
Another note is that business names can’t actually be renewed more than 60 days before expiry. ASIC also states that a PSP cannot:
Send you a letter in the mail offering to renew your business name earlier than 2 months before your expiry date
So in this case, Registry Pty Ltd has also breached ASIC PSP rules by sending the renewal well in advance of two months.
ASIC has information about private service providers on their webpage, including their expectations.
Most PSPs have started behaving better by making their unsolicited mail comply to ASICs requirements to state that it is NOT a letter from ASIC and use less confusing and deceptive formatting. Still, these letters catch many business owners out and you will find many complaints online. We can also see many PSPs are not complying with other rules like fees and timelines.
It seems like ASIC is only going to do something about these service providers if they receive enough complaints about their behavior.
If you receive renewal offers, you should check that they comply with guidelines and report companies that clearly don’t.
We would also like ASIC to also restrict these organizations from contacting business name owners by mail unless consent has already been given, in line with their restriction on email contact.
Information contained in letter:
Company: Registry Australia Pty Ltd
ABN: 34 625 637 023
Address: Level 14 / 333 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000 (serviced office)
Phone: 1300 070 000
Website: www.registry.com.au
Domain Registrant Contact Name: Technical Administrator
Domain Registrant Contact Email: admin@registry.com.au
ABN is also associated with other names, some of which violate ASIC guidance and which we mentioned on our last post.
Do not use marketing that may mislead customers
Do not operate under a business name that may make customers think ASIC endorses or authorises your services. For example, you must not use words such as ‘ASIC’ or ‘Business Name’ in your business name.
Last time we did research about the domain and company, it pointed to Robert Kaay of Kaay Holdings. An information request from the ASIC website, which anyone can do, shows the following:
Registered address: GUNGOR & PARTNERS PTY LTD, Suite 1, 219 Canning Highway, SOUTH PERTH WA 6151
Start date: 21/08/2020
Principal Place Of Business address:
Level 14, 333 Collins Street, MELBOURNE VIC 3000
Start date: 01/01/2019
Director
Name: RYAN JOHN MANNING
Address: 85 Scott Street, HELENA VALLEY WA 6056
Appointment date: 22/06/2020
Secretary
Name: RYAN JOHN MANNING
Address: 85 Scott Street, HELENA VALLEY WA 6056
Appointment date: 22/06/2020
It’s interesting that the Scott Street address appears in search engines linked to Chaps Group Pty Ltd who are also listed on the ASIC extract as a shareholder of Registry Australia Pty Ltd. Interesting also is that Billboard Pty Ltd, another major shareholder, is listed at the same Collins Street services office address.
The Registry Australia website prominently displays their TrustPilot rating and shows only positive reviews. If you visit the TrustPilot website you will see they also have a slew of extremely bad reviews that they don’t show on their own website.
Most Recent Letter received:
This letter like the last includes an opt-out instruction but it doesn’t appear it’s being obeying as we opt-ed out last time yet still received another letter.