The ACCC had addressed Coles misleading advertising about its in-house baked bread and rolls - now it's time for someone to look into product quality

 Two slices from a Coles loaf in which approx. one quarter of the slices had hollow middles, July 2013
A problem which exists to varying degrees to this day

AdNews 18 Jun 2014:

Coles has been cooked by the Federal Court and found guilty of misleading consumers with claims its bread and rolls were baked in-house despite being shipped frozen from overseas.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched action against the supermarket giant last year after consumers – led by former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett – began to question the veracity of the claims.

Coles had claimed that because the baking process had been completed in ovens in store, the promotions of being baked fresh in store were acceptable.

The bread and roll ranges were promoted at Coles’ supermarkets with in-house bakeries as ‘Baked Today, Sold Today’ and in some cases ‘Freshly Baked In-Store’.

Federal Court Chief Justice James Allsop handed down his judgement this afternoon and the retailer now faces potential substantial fines for each of the breaches of the Trade Practices Act.

In his judgment, Chief Justice Allsop said “It is not the place of the court to provide an advice … as to how Coles might sell bread that has been par-baked from frozen product … A start would, however, be to make it tolerably clear to the public that the recent baking was the completion of a baking process that had taken place sometime before, off site, and that 'freshly baked' actually meant the completion of the baking process of frozen product prepared and frozen off site by suppliers.”

ACCC chairman Rob Sims said that Coles behaviour not only mislead consumers placed smaller businesses that baked their bread on the premises at a competitive disadvantage.

Coles stores in the Northern Rivers may not brush off customer concerns so quickly after this ACCC media release

A rather satisfying media release, given the attitude of certain Coles staff when customers' concerns over this advertising pictured below were dismissed with version of; ‘But people will know that the vegetables under the sign are imported. Head office makes us put up these signs – we are doing nothing wrong!’

Graphic from WA Today

Coles pays infringement notices for alleged misleading country of origin claims

1 July 2013

Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd (Coles) has paid six infringement notices totaling $61,200 for alleged misleading representations about the country of origin of fresh produce made in five of its stores between March 2013 and May 2013. The stores were located across Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took action following a complaint that Coles had displayed some imported navel oranges and kiwi fruit underneath price boards reading ‘Helping Australia Grow’ with the triangular ‘Australian Grown’ symbol. The ACCC surveyed a number of Coles stores and found that the signage was also being used in other stores to advertise imported asparagus and almonds.

The ACCC alleges that this signage gave the overall impression that the imported produce was Australian grown, when it was not. The overseas country of origin was correctly identified either by stickers on the produce itself, on its packaging or under the display bin.  However, the ACCC considered that the relatively small sized stickers or statements were not sufficient to correct the overwhelming impression of the ‘Helping Australia Grow’ campaign imagery that was associated with the sale of the product.

“Consumers should be able to rely on the accuracy of claims about food, particularly when they are prepared to pay a premium for products made in Australia. Misleading country of origin claims can also have a significant impact on the competitive process and hurt the local economy,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

“While this does not appear to be a case of widespread or systemic conduct, ‘Helping Australia Grow’ is a significant national campaign driven hard by Coles to advertise its fresh produce. This is a lesson to all retailers that they need to take care when undertaking significant advertising campaigns to ensure consumers are not misled by those campaigns,” Mr Sims said.

The ACCC is prioritising its work in relation to credence claims, particularly those in the food industry with the potential to have a significant impact on consumers and competitors.

Coles advised the ACCC that the conduct arose out of the relocation of stock within stores without updating the promotional imagery on the price boards. The ACCC nevertheless considered action was necessary given the importance consumers place on representations of this kind, and the importance of strong compliance processes when choosing to make such claims in the context of a widespread campaign.

The payment of infringement notice penalties is not an admission of a contravention of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. The ACCC can issue an infringement notice where it has reasonable grounds to believe a trader has contravened certain consumer protection laws.

Infringement notices.

Release number: 

148/13

Media enquiries: 

Mr Duncan Harrod - (02) 6243 1108 or 0408 995 408

Northern Rivers businesses on notice regarding future carbon tax claims made to consumers

The ACCC has published online a guide for business when making any claim that the carbon tax to be introduced in mid-2012 will increase costs to consumers.

Hopefully the Northern Rivers business community will read this document as there will be local people watching out for any false or misleading claims.

Carbon price claims - Guide for business.pdf (1.6 MB)

Who is Supertintendent Pieter Poynton APM (Ret) and why is he out there in cyberspace?

On International Sweep Day this week the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) swept the Internet looking for sites which scam the young.

It seems the digital highway is littered with people pretending a position or occupation to which they are not entitled in the real world or dubiously offering goods and services they may not have the capacity to deliver.

However, not all misrepresentations out there in cyberspace are aimed at scamming money. Sometimes the motives are more complex.

The prevelance of individuals who pretend a military past has seen the formation of the Australian and New Zealand Military Impostors (ANZMI) website which appears to represent a group of irate individuals intent on exposing this form of fraud.

Of course military rank is not the only rank type assumed by the wannabe brigade. Just this week I was sent a link to one intriguing persona which has surfaced - a certain 'decorated' Superintendent Pieter Poynton APM (Retired).

I look forward to seeing how this latest phantom develops and how many online and print newspapers get taken in.

Gloria Jean and Mercy Ministries back in the spotlight

With much of the Australian mainstream media and blogosphere focussed on the recent federal election, this The Sydney Morning Herald article past under my radar (kudos to Cafe Whispers for being an exception) :

The parent company of Gloria Jeans Coffee, co-owned by the Hillsong Church elder Nabi Saleh, is in ''financial dire straits'' and should be put into liquidation and an investigation held into its affairs, the NSW Supreme Court has been told.
It is the latest shot fired in the multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the coffee giant's parent company, Jireh International, by a small US-based coffee supplier, Western Export Services.
On June 11, the court ruled that Jireh must pay the export company millions in commissions and interest after it found Jireh had breached a joint venture agreement. Yesterday the parties were back in court, fighting over the formula used to calculate the total owed to Western Export Services.

The last published judgment in the matter Western Export Services Inc v Jireh International Pty Limited [2010] NSWSC 622 (11 June 2010) awarding $8,387,656 in damages to Western Export Services.

Here in Australia we are all aware of the ACCC's investigations into Hillsong-connected Mercy Ministries:

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has obtained court enforceable undertakings, which includes payment, from seven former directors of Mercy Ministries Incorporated and/or Mercy Ministries Limited in relation to misrepresentations by those entities.
The undertakings include an apology and a voluntary payment of $1050 to those people affected by the conduct. These are made by former directors Mark Zschech, Peter Irvine, Mark Caldwell, Stephen Crouch, Young Pil (Phil) Sohn, Darlene Zschech and Clark Pearson.
Mercy Ministries is a not-for-profit Christian based charitable organisation which offered a residential counselling program to young women affected by issues such as eating disorders, depression, self harm, unplanned pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse and the effects of sexual or physical abuse. The program was offered whilst the young women resided in a Mercy Ministries home.
The ACCC was concerned that in a period between January 2005 and June 2008, Mercy Ministries misrepresented in brochures and on its website that its services were provided for free, when the majority of residents were required to assign their Centrelink payments to Mercy Ministries for the duration of their stay.
The ACCC was also concerned that during this period, Mercy Ministries misrepresented that it offered professional support from psychologists, dieticians, general practitioners, social workers and counsellors, when the level of professional support was not available as represented. Mercy Ministries did not employ this range of professionals. It did facilitate access to external professionals upon request from residents.

2010

Undertakings remedy Mercy Ministries misleading conduct

Undertakings remedy Mercy Ministries misleading conduct. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has obtained court enforceable undertakings, which includes payment, from...

Young Pil Sohn

obtained court enforceable Undertakings from seven former directors of Mercy Ministries Incorporated and/or Mercy Ministries Limited in relation to representations made by...

Mark Anton Zschech

December 2009. Undertaking. The ACCC has obtained court enforceable Undertakings from seven former directors of Mercy Ministries Incorporated and/or Mercy Ministries...

2009

Undertaking.pdf

Darlene Joyce Zschech and Clark Pearson were directors or office holders of Mercy Ministries Limited ACN 094 325 765 ( N ML) and/or Mercy Ministries Incorporated ABN...

ACCC October—December 2009.pdf

A report of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission s activities 1 October to 31 December 2009

Paid good money for a gig and been denied entry?

If your answer is "YES", then this should be of interest.


inthemix.com.au reports that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) are said to be investigating claims made by disgruntled punters following the Laneway Festival in Melbourne earlier this month. The Age report that the ACCC are following up on accusations made against the event’s organisers after several hundred ticket purchasers were left stranded outside one of the festival’s stages, unable to gain entry to see artists they’d paid up to $100 to see.

At 7.30pm access to the Little Lonsdale Stage was closed for “safety reasons”, meaning many festival goers did not get the chance to see headline acts Girl Talk and Architecture In Helsinki. Following the event, organisers laid blame on a small number of punters who were causing trouble, as well as on an eleventh hour issue which forced them to greatly reduce capacity to the area. Complaints lodged with the ACCC contend that it was not noted on tickets that there would be limited access available.

In the days following the event groups began appearing on Facebook, with many irate punters demanding a refund on their ticket purchase. One group in particular, named ‘Cheated by St Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2009 – I want a refund’, has almost 800 members and included direct links through to the ACCC website for disgruntled fans to lodge complaints.

Laneway’s directors, Jerome Borazio and Danny Rogers, were understandably upset by the unfortunate incident at their Melbourne event, and are said to have promised a ‘personal phone call’ to any punter who complains to them direct. “Danny and I have read every single complaint,” Mr Borazio told The Age. “We care about what has been said and we’re looking at the reality of what we can do to restore faith in the festival. We’re devastated.”

Send your emails to :info@lanewayfestival.com.au

Image above from http://www.lanewayfestival.com.au/main#l=news/15