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photo: Sorin Gheorghita for Unsplash
A Hamilton dairy company has been fined $420,000 for using false claims on its packaging.
Milkio Foods Limited’s ghee products carry descriptions such as “100% pure New Zealand” and “from the clean green pastures of New Zealand” – even though it uses butter imported from India.
The company also used false and incomplete information to gain approval to use the FernMark logo – a trusted symbol identifying New Zealand-made products.
The Ministry for Primary Industries referred the case to the Commerce Commission and charged Milkio with 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act.
The company pleaded guilty to the charges.
In delivering his sentence, Judge Thomas Ingram highlighted the serious damage these false representations may have caused to the New Zealand dairy industry, noting that the damage was “not just to consumers but also to other producers who rely on the New Zealand brand to sell their dairy products”.
Judge Ingram held that the use of FernMark was the icing on the cake of Milkio’s brand positioning strategy, which was intended to provide consumers with an additional and unassailable guarantee of quality.
“In this case, the level of negligence or carelessness alleged is such that it could fairly be described as wilful blindness, perhaps even to the point of commercial sleepwalking.”
Commerce Commission general manager of fair trading Vanessa Horne said the case was significant to the commission because of the global value of New Zealand’s export brands.
“New Zealand’s high-quality dairy products are renowned internationally, which underpins the value of our dairy industry and exports.
“Milkio capitalises on this reputation to promote their own products by using descriptions such as ‘from the clean green pastures of New Zealand’ and ‘produced and made in pure New Zealand’, even though some of their products use butter imported from India.”
She said the conviction should serve as a warning to others trying to pass off as New Zealand brands.
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