Austar Port Lincoln Pty Ltd trading as Austar Seafood Warehouse (Austar) is a seafood company situated in Port Lincoln that sells and supplies seafood products via its single retail outlet in Port Lincoln direct to consumers (and via wholesale to traders).
Austar published advertisements in the Port Lincoln Times newspaper between March and August 2009 which stated that its seafood was “100% Port Lincoln Product” and “local seafood”. Some of the seafood advertised was not locally sourced but sourced from elsewhere within Australia or imported.
Austar admits that in advertising this seafood as local product, it has engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct, and is in breach of sections 52 and 53(eb) of the Act.
The ACCC has accepted a section 87B undertaking from Austar. Pursuant to the undertaking, Austar will:
refrain for a period of three years from representing that its seafood products are sourced locally from Port Lincoln in circumstances where those products are imported from overseas, or not sourced from the local Port Lincoln area;
publish a corrective notice in a Thursday edition of The Port Lincoln Times newspaper; and
establish and implement a trade practices compliance program.
