Happiness Road Investment Group Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

The ACCC has accepted a section 87B undertaking from Happiness Road Investment Group Pty Ltd (Happiness Road) in relation to misleading 'Made in Australia' claims that were made on its website www.koalajack.com.au. From at least 5 October 2012 to 14 October 2012 Happiness Road promoted its ugg boots as being Australian Made when, in fact, all its ugg boots were made in China. Happiness Road also represented on its website that its ugg boots were approved to use the Australia Made logo or had the benefits of such approval, when it did not have approval to use the Australian Made logo. The ACCC was concerned about the conduct because purchasing decisions can be influenced by claims regarding the place or country of origin of a product and, in many cases, consumers are willing to pay a premium for products that they believe are genuinely Australian made. In response to the ACCC's investigation Happiness Road admits that by engaging in this conduct it may have engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive in contravention of sections 18, 29(1)(g) and 29(1)(k) of Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Australian Consumer Law). To address the ACCC's concerns Happiness Road has provided the ACCC with a court-enforceable undertaking that it will: i) refrain from promoting or labelling its ugg boots as "Made in Australia" when that is not the case; ii) at its own expense, publish an online advertisement (Adword) on Google that directs visitors to the ACCC's website and, in particular, to publications about misleading claims and advertising; and iii) provide refunds to consumers who purchased uggs boots through the Koala Jack website during the relevant period and were misled by Happiness Road's conduct. The undertaking also requires Mr Jason Rey, a director of Happiness Road, to undergo trade practices law compliance training.