Luv-A-Duck cops $360k fine

Luv-a-Duck has been ordered by the federal court to pay a $360,000 penalty for misleading advertising with regard to the living conditions of its ducks.

The duck processor was fined over claims that the ducks used in its products were "grown and grain fed in the spacious Victorian Wimmera wheatlands," and other promotional statements of a similar nature that implied its ducks were different to barn-raised ducks, when in fact the ducks spent no time outside of their barn.

In March the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched proceedings against the company and won. Last week in a separate case, the federal court handed equally hefty penalties to Baiada Poultry and Bartter Enterprises, who were between them ordered to pay a total of $400,000.

The Australian Chicken Meat Federation (ACMF), the peak industry body for Australia’s chicken meat industry, was also ordered to pay $20,000 over 'free to roam' claims.

Luv-a-Duck also has to pay $15,000 in court costs and publish a corrective notice and implement a trade practices compliance program.