Darling Downs Fresh Eggs has been ordered to pay $250,000 for promoting its eggs as ‘free range’, in legal proceedings initiated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The court ordered that RL Adams, trading as Darling Downs Fresh Eggs, pay the penalty for supplying eggs marketed and labelled as ‘free range’ when in fact the laying hens had been continuously confined to barns and had never had access to the outdoors.
The court found that by labelling and promoting eggs as ‘free range’, Darling Downs Fresh Eggs represented to consumers that the eggs were produced by hens which were able to move about freely on an open range each day, and that most of the hens did in fact do so on most days.
The doors to its barns were kept shut at all times, however, so none of the laying hens were able to access or use the outdoor range.
“The issue of free range is very important to many consumers and the Australian Consumer Law requires egg producers to make truthful, and not misleading, claims,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.
“It’s clearly misleading to claim your eggs are free range when the hens that laid the eggs didn’t roam freely outdoors.”
Darling Downs Fresh Eggs sold the eggs labelled as ‘free range’ to consumers in Queensland, the Northern Territory and NSW under its own ‘Mountain Range’ label and under the ‘Drakes Home Brand Free Range’ label.
Darling Downs Fresh Eggs also supplied eggs it represented were free range to other producers which used them to supplement their own free range egg supply.
Last year, the Federal Court handed down a $300,000 penalty against Pirovic after finding that its 'free range' egg representations were false or misleading. The ACCC also last year initiated legal proceedings against two suppliers - Derodi and Holland - over their use of ‘free range’.
Choice said while it welcomed the latest ruling, it highlighted the need for a national standard so that consumers can have confidence in this market.
In July, Choice found that many egg products in the supermarket do not meet consumers’ expectations of free range.
The government is in the process of developing a national standard, and Choice said it is calling for a standard that meets consumers’ expectations of free range.
