Between April 2007 and April 2008 Dirt Works Australia Pty Limited, a wholesaler of bicycles, supplied to retailers 115 Surly Steamroller bicycles which did not have a back brake and also, in some instances, did not have reflectors and a bell, as required by the mandatory standard for pedal bicycles.
Dirt Works also supplied those bicycles and a further 190 Surly Steamroller bicycles between May 2008 and June 2009 with a manual which did not comply with the mandatory standard and in packaging which did not have printed on it certain information and a warning regarding their assembly as required by the mandatory standard.
Dirt Works acknowledges that by engaging in the above-mentioned conduct it contravened section 65C of the Trade Practices Act 1974.
In response to concerns raised with it by the ACCC regarding its conduct, Dirt Works wrote to its retail customers to whom it supplied the bicycles advising them of the failure of the bicycles to comply with the mandatory standard and requesting that they cease supplying any unsold stock of them until they complied with the mandatory standard.
Dirt Works has provided court enforceable undertakings not to supply any bicycles that the mandatory standard applies to unless they comply with that standard and to implement a Trade Practices Compliance Program.
Dirt Works has also provided court enforceable undertakings which are designed to ensure that consumers who purchased the bicycles:
are made aware that their bicycles failed to comply with the mandatory standard;
are given the opportunity to have their bicycles fitted with a back brake, reflectors and a bell free of charge if they were not supplied with any of those items when they purchased their bicycles; and
are supplied with a manual which complies with the mandatory standard.
