An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Federal Court action alleging that two companies had falsely represented fuel to be diesel or distillate has ended.
"This follows the ACCC and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions finding that there were difficulties in proving to the criminal standard that fuel had been misrepresented to consumers as diesel or distillate," ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
"The difficulties became apparent after the ACCC sought further expert advice and testing of the fuel represented to be diesel or distillate. The later tests cast doubt on the conclusions drawn from earlier tests. "Since the institution of proceedings it has become apparent that there are varying tolerances for fuel suitable to run diesel engines, even amongst diesel engine manufacturers.
"The ACCC had taken action against two companies, Truckstop 31 Pty Ltd (a retailer of fuels) and Camile Trading Pty Ltd (a retailer and wholesaler of fuels) in the interests of small business and consumers whose machinery could have been damaged. "Since the action was instituted there have been changes to laws concerning chemical markers used in fuels represented to be diesel."
Professor Fels said the ACCC would not resile from taking action to protect consumers where the evidence was sufficient to bring criminal actions. "In this case because of the varying standards for diesel, resulting in uncertainty as to what diesel legally means and the difficulties associated with the scientific tests that were conducted, the ACCC agreed with DPP advice that the prosecution should not go on."