Need to know
- CHOICE has been calling out poor products, services and companies with our Shonky Awards for almost 20 years
- Recent recipients range from household appliances and food products to major retailers and airlines
- The extra scrutiny we've put on brands has led to products being discontinued, consumers being compensated and changes across industries
For 65 years, CHOICE has helped everyday Australians sort the good products and services from the bad.
It's the latter that we're particularly interested in shining a light on, and this mission was the driving force behind our first ever Shonky Awards in 2006.
Our 2025 list will be another roll call of goods and services you'll definitely want to avoid, so follow us on Facebook and Instagram to catch it when it drops.
Close to 140 Shonky Awards later…
Since launching the Shonkys, we've given out 138 of these lemon-shaped awards to businesses and products for a range of reasons – from being simply misleading to downright dangerous.
The Shonkys raise awareness of these products and services and, as you'll see below, put pressure on businesses and government to ensure that what we consume is safe, suitable and effective.
Over the years, they've helped lead to some solid wins for consumers – here are ten of those victories.
1. Stronger scam protections on social media
In proof of how quickly a Shonky can precipitate change, in last year's awards we called out Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) for not doing enough to protect Australians from scams.
Facebook's parent company cracked down on scam ads after we gave it a Shonky.
It came after Australians lost $95 million to scams on social media in 2023 – almost 250% more than in 2020.
Considering its significant resources and control of the platforms that criminals were using to contact victims, we argued Meta could do more to crack down on scams.
We also criticised the company for appearing to take money from scammers, whose advertisements for fake investment schemes and other cons were appearing on Meta platforms.
Less than a month after finding itself with a Shonky, Meta announced anyone wanting to advertise financial services to Australians on its platforms would have to pass a new verification process designed to weed out scammers.
Then, in February this year, the federal parliament stepped up its response, passing legislation to establish the Scams Prevention Framework (SPF).
The SPF will force businesses like Meta to take certain steps to combat scams or risk fines of up to $50 million.
2. Shonky snacks off shelves
The past few years have seen several major food manufacturers pull products after we shone a light on their shonkiness.
We called out Daily Juice Co for its "green juices" which relied completely on food colouring for their healthy hue.
In 2022, we rang the shonky alarm on Steggles for claiming a line of its chicken nuggets were "Boosted with vegies", when in reality they only contained 14g of potato and cauliflower per 100g serve.
Two years later, we called shonky again on Daily Juice Co for making two "green juices" that didn't contain any green vegetables – ingredients shoppers told us they'd expect these sorts of juices to be made with.
Following our own experiment in the CHOICE kitchen, we discovered that green food colouring was the only thing giving these juices their healthy hue.
Both juices and the Steggles nuggets have now been discontinued.
3. Grocery giants humbled
CHOICE was ahead of the curve in 2023 when we awarded Coles and Woolworths a Shonky for recording billion dollar profits during a cost-of-living crisis and deploying confusing specials promotions in their aisles.
Consumer anger was palpable, with over 60% of shoppers we surveyed believing the retail giants were profiting from hiking prices, when more and more people were struggling to keep up with rising living costs.
Australia's largest supermarkets got a Shonky for huge profits in a cost-of-living crisis.
Bestowing the retailers with a shared Shonky Award helped kick off a year of reckoning for both supermarkets.
In 2024, the ACCC conducted an inquiry into competition in the grocery sector and how retailers set their prices.
In March this year, its final report made 20 recommendations, including the requirement for supermarkets to display clearer pricing information, verifiable discounts and notifications when package sizes change.
The federal government backed the recommendations and is currently considering how to strengthen pricing codes to make some of these changes happen.
And there's more action to come. Following our uncovering of dubious 'specials', the ACCC has launched legal action against Coles and Woolworths for promotions it alleges are misleading.
4. More rights for airline customers
In 2021, amid global travel chaos, we gave a gong to the Airline Customer Advocate for being nothing more than a complaint-forwarding service that wasn't doing enough to assist and advocate for travellers.
Then in 2022 we put Qantas in the shonk house for poor service and providing refund vouchers that were expensive and unwieldy.
In the years since, we've said Australians deserve the right to travel refunds that are easy to obtain, and an airline ombuds scheme with the power to independently decide on complaints.
Now, the federal government is working to set up an aviation customer rights charter and an ombuds scheme to rule what remedies travellers deserve when plans are disrupted, and to compel airlines to provide them.
5. Harvey Norman called out for misleading customers
In 2020, we gave Harvey Norman a Shonky for its practice of signing customers up to credit cards from Latitude Finance to let them buy products under interest-free deals.
We highlighted Harvey Norman's deals with Latitude Finance back in 2020.
With the interest rates on these cards among the highest we'd ever seen, we argued Harvey Norman's penchant for distributing them without making sure customers could cover the cost was driving people into debt.
In October last year, the Federal Court ruled that by promoting these deals, Harvey Norman and Latitude had misled consumers by obscuring the fact they would have to take out a Latitude credit card.
With Harvey Norman and Latitude's latest appeals against this ruling dismissed in September, regulators are still seeking penalties from both companies.
6. Better safety standards for baby sleep products
In 2018, we gave all portable cots a lemon for not meeting safety requirements and putting babies' lives at risk.
Since then, we've continued to turn up baby sleep products posing safety risks in the course of our regular cot and bassinet reviews.
As recently as March this year, 16 out of 27 portacots examined by our experts failed to meet key safety standards. Then in September, more cots with serious safety failures were flagged by our expert testers.
Portable and household cots have had to comply with mandatory regulations for decades, and as of next year, so will all other infant sleep products, such as bassinets.
Designed to make portacots and other sleep products safer in the wake of our testing, our experts say these new mandatory standards could lead to better products on our shelves.
7. Faulty florist fined
Online flower delivery service Bloomex is another dodgy operator that's found regulators hot on its heels after being the recipient of a Shonky.
We gave online florist Bloomex a Shonky for flowers that failed to live up to expectations.
The ACCC launched Federal Court proceedings against the florist in December 2022, accusing it of publishing misleading reviews and prices on its website.
The scrutiny came one month after we delivered Bloomex a Shonky for accepting orders it couldn't fulfil and delivering some customers flowers that were dead on arrival.
In March last year, the ACCC ordered the florist to pay $1 million in penalties for making false and misleading representations on its site.
8. Wasteful washer-dryer canned
Samsung has received multiple nominations over the years, but its 2017 nod was for selling a washer/dryer combo that was nothing more than a $3000 lemon.
Testing in the CHOICE labs revealed it used a massive 210 litres of water and took six-and-a-half hours to dry a load.
Samsung discontinued the model shortly afterwards.
9. Bed retailer admits to illegal sales tactics
Revitalife admitted its methods for selling beds likely broke consumer law.
In 2020, we erected a monument of shonk to bed company Revitalife and its targeting of older Australians, who it encouraged to buy expensive "therapeutic" beds with questionable benefits.
Our investigation heard from several people who were subjected to high-pressure sales tactics when visited at home by Revitalife representatives.
In 2022, following an ACCC investigation, Revitalife admitted its sales tactics had likely breached consumer law and refunded customers over $57,000.
10. Home insurance taken to task
The home insurance industry earned itself a gong in 2011 for avoiding paying out claims from flood damage.
This was possible because it conveniently hadn't come up with a standard definition of what counted as a flood, meaning lots of policies included various carve-outs that left many people without cover.
A year later, the federal government took action and amended insurance regulations to finally include a standard definition of flood.
We're on your side
For more than 60 years, we've been making a difference for Australian consumers. In that time, we've never taken ads or sponsorship.
Instead we're funded by members who value expert reviews and independent product testing.
With no self-interest behind our advice, you don't just buy smarter, you get the answers that you need.
You know without hesitation what's safe for you and your family. And our recent sunscreens test showed just how important it is to keep business claims in check.
So you'll never be alone when something goes wrong or a business treats you unfairly.
Learn more about CHOICE membership today
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
