InsuranceNEWS.com.au has been ordered by a federal magistrate to change its name and write to its subscribers advising it has no connection with a website named InsuranceNewsAustralia.com.

The order, issued last week in the Federal Magistrate’s Court in Melbourne, comes into effect on October 1. It followed a hearing in April in which Insurance News Australia’s publishers, JEM Nominees, accused insuranceNEWS.com.au’s publishers of passing off and being in breach of Trade Practices Act provisions related to misleading and deceptive conduct.

[Passing off refers to false assertions that a company’s goods or services have some association with another’s.]

Magistrate Grant Reithmuller said in his decision that “readers who have not carefully saved the web address are just as likely to go to the wrong site and not realise it is run by a different company.”

“Even if the names of themselves were entirely descriptive I would nonetheless find that the similarity of the names coupled with the appearance of the websites is misleading and deceptive”.

InsuranceNEWS.com.au Publisher Terry McMullan says his company will seek leave to appeal against the magistrate’s decision in the Federal Court.

“I’m prevented by legal considerations from saying any more at this stage,” he said.