Optus has been crowned Australia’s most distrusted brand, overtaking Woolworths in Roy Morgan’s latest update as the triple-0 outage erodes public confidence.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the shift is directly linked to the fallout from the fatal triple‑0 outage in September 2025, which left Australians unable to reach emergency services and two people dead.
“Optus is Australia’s most distrusted brand — that follows the fatal triple‑0 outage in September 2025 and shows how quickly a service failure can become a national distrust event,” Levine said.
The latest rankings reveal a major shake‑up across the top five. Tech giant Meta, with a suite of brands including Facebook, has climbed into second place, with ongoing concerns around privacy, misinformation and data handling.
While fast‑growing Chinese online marketplace Temu has surged into third amid concerns about product quality and data security.
Woolworths, last year’s most distrusted brand, has dropped to fourth, with supermarket rival Coles rounding out the top five.
The survey results were before the Federal Court had found Coles misled customers in their “down, down” campaign.
Levine says supermarkets remain under intense scrutiny.
“We are also watching the supermarkets closely, especially after the Federal Court finding against Coles,” she said.
The findings were unpacked in Roy Morgan’s June quarterly update, which warned that many major brands are still struggling to rebuild trust and loyalty in a market where Australians are more sceptical, more vocal and more willing to switch providers.
Media giant News Corp sits just outside the top tier at 11th, as scepticism toward major media organisations continues to weigh on public trust.
There remains a high level of distrust towards brands from consumers after COVID-19, with consumers believing “companies are putting profits ahead of customers.” Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale the most trusted brands are dominated by familiar household names including Bunnings, Aldi, Kmart followed by Commonwealth Bank. Australia Post rounds out the top 10.
Optus has been approached for comment.
