NHVR wins legal action

The Federal Court has ruled in favour of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator in its legal action against Countrywide Marketing Pty Ltd and its sole director, Timothy O'Keefe.

Countrywide Marketing had been falsely purporting to sell advertising space in the NHVR Roadbook, the National Heavy Vehicle Roadbook and the National Heavy Vehicle Compliance Guide.

The NHVR's CEO, Sal Petroccitto, said the body had never endorsed these publications, and that it had issued several warning to the truck industry highlighting that it had no association with Countrywide Marketing.

"To avoid industry confusion, we asked Countrywide Marketing and its director, Mr Timothy O'Keefe, to cease using the business name 'NHVR' and words and images that may have implied a connection with the NHVR," he said.

"When it became clear our requests were being ignored, we took action. We didn't want any member of industry to be misled into spending money on advertising in publications that were clearly being misrepresented."

The Federal Court of Australia found that Countrywide Marketing had engaged in false, misleading and deceptive conduct under Australian Consumer Law, and granted an injunction permanently restraining companies from using the business name 'NHVR' or 'NHVR Pty Ltd' or representing themselves as having any approval or affiliation with the NHVR.

The Court ordered that the domain name 'nhvrgroup.com.au' be deregistered and that NHVR Pty Ltd change its name by May 5, 2015.

Neither Countrywide Marketing nor Timothy O'Keefe chose to defend the proceedings.