The Federal Court has handed a $300,000 penalty to Derodi and Holland Farms, trading together as Free Range Egg Farms, over their free range egg claims.
Free Range Egg Farms supplies eggs labelled as “free range” under the brands Ecoeggs, Port Stephens and Field Fresh free range eggs.
The court found that by labelling and promoting the eggs as ‘free range’ from 1 January 2012 to 2 December 2014, Free Range Egg Farms contravened the Australian Consumer Law by representing to consumers that the eggs were produced by hens which were able to, and did, move about freely on an open range on an ordinary day, when this was not the case.
Ecoeggs, which has a ChookCam on its website, a user controllable camera enabling consumers to watch hens live on its farms, earned a Choice 'shonky award' in 2013 for its ‘free range’ stocking density of 20,000 birds per hectare.
The ACCC instituted proceedings against the companies in 2014 after it became aware that some of the farms that supplied Free Range Egg Farms did not move about freely on an open range on most days.
This was due to the flock size in the barns in combination with the size, placement and use of the physical openings to an open range.
Justice Edelman commented that the contravening conduct was significant, occurring over nearly a three year period and involving a widely consumed food.
It's the latest in a line of fines for egg companies that have flouted their free range claims. In September 2015, the Federal Court ordered a $250,000 penalty against Darling Downs Fresh Eggs for misleading ‘free range’ claims.
In 2014, the Federal Court handed down a $300,000 penalty against Pirovic after finding, by consent, that its 'free range' egg representations were false or misleading.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said where free range egg claims are not true, consumers are harmed and egg suppliers who are producing eggs that are genuinely free range are disadvantage.
“This decision reinforces the position the ACCC has taken that any free range egg claim must be backed by farming conditions which allow hens to actually move about on an open range each day,” Sims said.
Last month saw the introduction of a national information standard requiring eggs labelled as “free range” to have been laid by hens with meaningful and regular access to the outdoors and with a maximum outdoor stocking density of 10,000 hens.
The information standard will also require producers to prominently disclose the outdoor stocking density of hens laying free range eggs to help consumers compare the practices of different egg producers.
