The Federal Court has banned Coles for three years from advertising that its in-store baked bread is made or baked on the same day it is sold.
In the ruling, which was handed down on Monday, the retailer was also ordered to display a notice in its stores and on its website saying that it had broken the law by falsely advertising its bread products as "freshly baked" and "baked today".
In June, The Federal Court found that claims made by Coles that its ‘Cuisine Royale’ and ‘Coles Bakery’ bread was ‘Baked Today, Sold Today’ and in some cases ‘Freshly Baked In-Store’ were false, misleading and deceptive.
These bread products were partially baked and frozen off site by a supplier (in the case of Cuisine Royale, this baking and freezing took place overseas), and then transported and ‘finished’ at in-store bakeries within Coles supermarkets.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) initiated the proceedings and successfully argued that the labelling of the bread was likely to mislead consumers into thinking the bread was prepared from scratch in Coles’ in-house bakeries on the day it was offered for sale.
The court has yet to decide whether to fine Coles.
