The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has instituted proceedings against two suppliers over their use of ‘free range’.
The claims relate to the free range claims on their Ecoeggs, Field Fresh and Port Stephens egg brands which the ACCC alleges were false and misleading.
Derodi and Holland have a business known as Free Range Egg Farms which supplies eggs under the Ecoeggs label nationally, and under the Port Stephens and Field Fresh Free Range Eggs labels in NSW.
The ACCC alleges that Derodi and Holland made false, misleading or deceptive representations on egg cartons, websites, a Facebook page and a Twitter account to the effect that the eggs supplied and labelled as “free range” were produced by hens that could move about freely.
“The ACCC considers that free range means more than animals just having potential access to the outdoors,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said. “Consumers expect free range to mean animals genuinely can and do go outside on most days.”
Ecoeggs, which has a ChookCam on its website, a user controllable camera enabling consumers to watch hens live on its farms, also earned a Choice 'shonky award' last year due to its ‘free range’ stocking density of 20,000 birds per hectare.
The proceedings will kick off in the federal court in February, and the case forms part of a wider investigation by the ACCC into free range claims made by egg producers.
In September, 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.
Sims recently said that there is no need for a government standard on what constitutes free range.
