Arthur Ellis Limited - s.87B undertaking

New Zealand company Arthur Ellis Limited (Arthur Ellis), trading as ‘Fairydown’ and ‘Zone’ has provided a court enforceable undertaking to the ACCC in respect to representations concerning its outdoor down products, particularly its ‘Fairydown’ brand down sleeping bags.

Arthur Ellis has represented to consumers that some of its ‘Fairydown’ down sleeping bags contain 100% goosedown.  It is widely acknowledged in the down products industry that it is highly unlikely that 100% down content could be achieved under normal commercial manufacturing processes.

ACCC testing of an Arthur Ellis ‘Fairydown’ sleeping bag represented as containing 100% goosedown showed that the sleeping bag contained 89.9% goosedown, significantly short of the represented 100% goosedown.
 
Arthur Ellis advised the ACCC that its 100% goosedown content claim was made in reliance of its interpretation of the labelling percentage ‘tolerances’ allowed under the Australian Standard 2479-1987 (Down and/or feather filling materials and filled products), and that it had not intended to mislead or deceive consumers. 

Arthur Ellis has undertaken to:

• not promote that any of its sleeping bags or clothing items contain 100% down, given that normal commercial manufacturing processes are very unlikely to achieve this percentage of down content;
• not make any down content percentage representations which include any percentage tolerance or allowance;
• not make any down content percentage representations that it cannot substantiate by way of testing of its finished down products by an International Down & Feather Bureau accredited testing organisation;
• place a corrective notice on its web-site for 3 months;
• in conjunction with certain other outdoor down products suppliers, place corrective newspaper advertisements in each State and Territory in which its sleeping bags have been sold; and
• implement and maintain a trade practices compliance program.