Holmac Sales Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Holmac Sales Pty Ltd is incorporated in Western Australia and carries on business as a distributor of Dewlands fruit juice products.  Holmac imports the Dewland fruit juice products from South Africa. Between July 2003 and January 2005 Holmac distributed the Dewlands range to outlets across Australia.

The ACCC was concerned that illustrations and representations on the packaging of many of the products in the Dewlands range created the overall impression that the products contained 100% of one kind of fruit juice, when they actually contained a blend of different fruit juices. Similarly, the ACCC was also concerned that the products were labelled “100% fruit juice” when the addition of vitamin C mean this was not the case.

The ACCC considers that as a result, Holmac Sales was likely to have breached sections 52, 53(a) and 55 of the TPA.

Holmac Sales acknowledges the ACCC’s concerns and admits that its conduct may have misled consumers and that such conduct may have been in contravention of sections 52, 53(a) and 55 of the TPA.

Holmac Sales has given court-enforceable undertakings that it:

• will not create an overall impression that a juice product contains 100% of a particular fruit juice, when the juice product in fact contains numerous types of fruit juice:
• will not represent a juice product to be 100% Fruit Juice when vitamin C has been added to that product:
• will publish a corrective notice in a major daily newspaper in each State and Territory; and
• will implement and maintain a trade practices compliance program