Mont Adventure Equipment Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Mont Adventure Equipment Pty Ltd, trading as Mont, has provided a court enforceable undertaking to the ACCC in respect to representations concerning its outdoor down products, particularly its down sleeping bags.

Mont has represented to consumers that some of its down sleeping bags contain 100% goose down or 100% duck down. 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 two Mont sleeping bags represented as containing 100% goose down showed that one Mont sleeping bag contained 88.8% goose down, while the other Mont sleeping bag contained 90.8% goose down, both significantly short of the represented 100% goose down.

Mont advised the ACCC that its 100% down content claims were made in reliance of its interpretation of the labelling percentage 'tolerances' allowed under Australian Standard 2479-1987 (Down and/or feather filling materials and filled products), and that it had not intended to mislead or deceive consumers.

Mont 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 website for 3 months
• in conjunction with certain other outdoor product suppliers, place corrective newspaper advertisements in each State and Territory in which its sleeping bags have been sold
• implement and maintain a trade practices compliance program