Erectile Company Bound for Court

Re-produced from Channel Nine News

06:00 AEST Fri Dec 24 2010

A company behind medical services and medications for men suffering from sexual problems is being sued by a consumer watchdog for allegedly failing to diagnose men properly.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission started legal proceedings against Sydney-based company Advanced Medical Institute Pty Ltd and its subsidiary AMI Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, its chief executive Jacov Vaisman and two doctors in the Federal Court in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Lawyers for AMI, which is in voluntary administration, were informed of the proceedings on Wednesday, the same day Mr Vaisman and one of the doctors were served with court documents, the ACCC said.

The watchdog alleges from 2008 to 2010 AMI acted unconscionably in breach of the Trade Practices Act.

"The ACCC alleges that among other things doctors engaged by AMI conducted consultations with patients in manners which did not provide an appropriate diagnosis and medical treatment of male sexual dysfunction," the ACCC said in a statement on Thursday.

"AMI's sales representatives represented to patients they would be entitled to a refund if the AMI treatments were ineffective in circumstances where the sales representatives did not accurately or clearly disclose the conditions on which the refund was offered."

The ACCC alleges Mr Vaisman and the two doctors were knowingly concerned, a party to or otherwise aided, abetted, counselled or procured the contravention of the Trade Practices Act by AMI.

"The ACC is seeking declarations and injunctions against each of the respondents together with a disqualification against Mr Vaisman, disclosure orders against AMI, costs and other orders."

It is not the first time AMI has landed in hot water.

Its bold billboards were banned by advertising regulators two years ago and earlier this month the Equal Opportunity Division of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal ordered it to pay $30,000 in compensation for unlawfully discriminating against an HIV-positivepatient.

AMI's administrators Trent Hancock and Michael Hird, from BDO Australia, said in a statement on Wednesday that their appointment was not expected to have any impact on "AMI's hundreds of thousands of clients in Australia and New Zealand"