Nordic Lust Pty Ltd, trading as City Pro Sport & Fitness, has been convicted of selling an exercise cycle which did not meet the mandatory consumer product safety standard.
The action was brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in the Federal Court.
This is the first prosecution for a breach of this mandatory standard, which was gazetted on 19 October 1994 and came into effect on 1 June 1995. It is based on Australian Standard 4092-1993 Exercise Cycles - Safety Requirements and is intended to reduce injuries to children such as crushing or amputation of fingers.
The exercise cycle had inadequate guards and had two points at which a child's finger could be permanently injured.
The standard aims to reduce serious injuries to children by requiring the guarding of hazardous moving parts on exercise cycles," ACCC Chairman, Professor Allan Fels, said today.
Exercise cycles which do not meet the standard cannot be legally supplied in Australia. The ACCC will do its utmost to enforce mandatory consumer product standards and will conduct random inspections to determine whether products comply.
The ACCC has published a product safety guide on exercise cycles and copies are available from all ACCC offices. The guide is designed to help manufacturers, wholesalers, importers and retailers of these cycles to comply with the mandatory safety standard.
Submissions on penalty will be heard at a later date. The company faces a maximum $200,000 fine.
