"The safety of children is paramount and this is reflected in tomorrow's voluntary recall of faulty cots," ACCC Deputy Chairman, Mr Peter Kell, said today.
IGC Dorel Australia Pty Ltd has agreed to voluntarily recall Kensington cots which have faulty drop sides.
Mr Kell said consumers can expect to read full details of the recall in major daily newspapers across Australia tomorrow or view them at www.recalls.gov.au.
"There is a nationally adopted mandatory safety standard for household cots which has specific requirements to ensure that the drop side of a cot works correctly and the filler bars remain in place with constant use.
"When the drop side fails, infants can easily fall out of the cot and suffer serious injuries to their head and limbs."
Mr Kell said he is very pleased with the cooperation that has led to this timely recall.
"The ACCC's fair trading counterpart in Queensland, the Department of Tourism and Fair Trading, detected the problem and worked well with IGC Dorel to ensure that Kensington cots were quickly withdrawn from Australian markets," he said.
Fair trading agencies in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia have had increasing numbers of reports about drop sides of wooden cots that fall apart during normal use.
By July 2010, Australia will have a single national product safety law and harmonised product safety mandatory standards and bans across the country. The ACCC and state and territory consumer protection departments will work together to enforce these laws.
"The ACCC is now leading a project with Queensland, South Australian and Western Australian agencies to identify the cause of this problem with wooden cots and ensure that cots continue to meet mandatory safety standards and consumer expectations," Mr Kell said.
"This is the type of coordinated effort we can now expect across Australia in the detection of unsafe or non-compliant goods and in the execution of a range of actions in cooperation with or against suppliers.
"Suppliers are on notice to ensure that all products they supply meet requirements specified in the standard – this means ensuring that all stock pass the prescribed safety tests and more importantly, that the product being sold to consumers is the same as the product being tested.
"Suppliers can only give this guarantee of safety by contracting a reliable test company with relevant expertise to carry out regular batch testing," Mr Kell said.
"The ACCC is working closely with all state and territory departments to rid the market of this potentially dangerous problem.
"The ACCC urges consumers and suppliers to check the working order of wooden household cots and immediately report any with drop sides that fail to the ACCC by calling the Infocentre on 1300 302 502."