This week the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) reported that is had accepted a court enforceable undertaking from the e-scooter rental company Lime Network Pty Ltd (Lime).

The undertaking was to address concerns regarding misrepresentations by Lime about the safety of its Generation 2 model e-scooter, and to ensure it complied with its product safety reporting obligations.

The ACCC found that Lime misrepresented to consumers that its Generation 2 e-scooters were safe when in certain circumstances excessive brake force, or locking, could occur on the front wheel. This resulted in the e-scooter stopping unexpectedly, causing riders to sustain serious personal injury such as broken bones, damage to teeth, cuts and abrasions.

The ACCC noted that Lime had been aware of the safety hazard associated with the unexpected stopping issue as early as November 2018 and yet did nothing to alert consumers to the associated risk of injury. Commissioner Sarah Court said –

“Businesses must disclose known issues so that consumers can take extra precautions if they still choose to use the products.”

Further Lime had failed to report serious injuries involving its product on at least 50 occasions (both in and outside Australia) when it had an obligation to do so pursuant to the Australian Consumer Law (Section 131).

The ACCC also considered that Lime had undermined the effective operation of Australia’s product safety obligations by not notifying the Commonwealth Minster of the firmware updates applied to the Generation 2 e-scooters to address the above safety issues (Section 128).

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in Lime suspending its e-scooter operations in March 2020 in Australia. Lime has committed that if it resumes operations in Australia it will supply only Generation 3 or later model e-scooters.

The Undertaking is in the below link –

https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/public-registers/undertaking/EO%20-%20s87B%20undertaking%20-%20Lime%20Network%20Pty%20Ltd%20-%20signed%20by%20Chair%2016%20June%202020.pdf