The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has accepted court enforceable undertakings from Living Momentum Pty Ltd, which sold non-compliant bunk beds.
Living Momentum is an importer and retailer of bedroom furniture including bunk beds and operates from a store located in Osborne Park, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.
The bunk beds supplied to consumers did not comply with Consumer Protection Notice No.1 of 2003 – Consumer Product Safety Standard: Bunk Beds. The standard outlines a number of requirements that are specified in the Australian/New Zealand Bunk Bed Standard AS/NZS 4220:1994.
Section 65C of the Trade Practices Act 1974 prohibits a corporation from supplying goods that do not comply with mandatory product safety standards and consumer protection notices.
Testing conducted on the bunk beds indicated that they did not meet a number of requirements of the standard in that:
- the corner posts of the bunk bed protruded by more than allowed by the standard
- the bunk bed frame contained gaps with a reducing configuration that may cause entrapment
- there were no mandatory markings about maximum mattress height on the bunk bed's frame, and
- there were no mandatory markings concerning the manufacturer or importers contact details on the bunk bed's frame.
Living Momentum has cooperated with the ACCC and responded to the ACCC's concerns by immediately ceasing supply of the bunk beds, publishing a product safety recall notice in a Western Australian based newspaper, commencing a process of contacting all customers who bought the bunk beds to inform them of the recall and informing its overseas suppliers of the problem.
Living Momentum has undertaken to the ACCC that it will:
- for a period of three years, ensure that goods supplied by Living Momentum that are subject to a prescribed safety and/or information standard under the Act comply with the relevant standard
- at its own expense, publish an information notice on its website
- display an information notice at the point of sale in its store for no less than three months
- use its best endeavours to contact all customers to which it supplied any of the bunk beds to offer them the option to repair and modify the bunk bed, or be refunded the cost of the bunk bed and report on this obligation to the ACCC, and
- establish and implement and maintain a trade practices law compliance program for three years, to minimise the risk of future breaches of section 65C of the Act and to ensure an awareness of the responsibilities and obligations in relation to the requirements of section 65C of the Act.
"The ACCC continues to monitor product safety standards closely and has no hesitation in enforcing the Act where it finds that children are placed at risk through non-compliance with mandatory safety standards," ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.
"Any company selling bunk beds has a responsibility to ensure that the bunks they are supplying are safe."