Disclaimer: This post is my personal opinion as a concerned member of the public and is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal advice nor to be construed as advise to buy or sell any security. If you are the recipient of such a breach notice from a private parking firm, suggest consider speaking to a legal advisor or the Citizens Advice Bureau.
First learned of this company, Smart Parking Ltd while trawling through the ASX company listings.
Have you received a breach notice by such a company? Read my other post about these types of remote parking enforcement companies and steps you can take.
Smart Parking Ltd appears to be a company that predominantly generates the majority of it’s revenue off of identifying contractual breaches of parking conditions at various business’ private car parking (retailers, shopping centres, etc) remotely via video / CCTV and then issuing the registered owner or keeper of the infringing vehicle a “Parking Breach Notice” (PBNs) with the view of hoping the recipient will pay up without challenging it nor understanding their consumer rights under these circumstances.
Disclosure / Personal analysis:
As emotional arbitrage, in confession, I have purchased shares in this company as mental analgesic to take the edge off of my burning indignation I have towards this company. (Similar admittedly with what I had to do with Facebook, now Meta Platforms Inc.)
This action is based off knowing how toothless the Consumer Watchdog Agencies can be on both sides of the Tasman and globally along with the public never seemingly bothering to kick up enough fuss (nor bothering to understand the rights available to them under relevant consumer / trading laws), as such, I don’t hold much hope of meaningful action being taken to curtail this company’s activities.
While I’ve never received a PBN from this company or others like them (e.g Parking Services Ltd.), I have gone and reported this company (in vain admittedly) to the Commerce Commission with a screenshot of the investor presentation where they seem to promote how many PBN’s they are able to issue as their key revenue strategy, but I only expect to hear crickets frankly (I reported this company prior to buying shares).
Update: Commerce Commission came back saying they won’t investigate. So there you have it folks. Toothless and useless and may as well not exist because frankly their existence embodies a false impression by the public that they are protected by exploitive anti consumer practices
Known trading names:
Smart Parking Ltd., Smart Parking Technology, Smart Compliance Management, Smart Comply.
