The Federal Court has made orders and declarations, by consent, against Trade Quip Pty Ltd and one of its directors, Mr Bruce Yarwood, for contraventions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 over the supply by the company of a non-compliant hydraulic trolley jack and associated false, misleading or deceptive representations.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged Trade Quip supplied Quick Lift Garage Jacks that did not comply with the mandatory consumer product safety standard for hydraulic trolley jacks which is based on Australian and New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 2615:1995 Hydraulic Trolley Jacks.
Trade Quip described the Quick Lift jack as having a nominal weight capacity of 2,250kg. However, when the jack was tested for compliance with the mandatory standard it failed to lift the nominated weight.
The court declared that the Quick Lift jacks did not comply with the durability requirements contained in the mandatory standard and that Trade Quip thereby contravened the Act.
The court also declared:
- Trade Quip had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct by falsely representing in a manual provided to its customers and various catalogues promoting its products that the Quick Lift jack complied with the mandatory standard and was approved to Australian Standards, and
- Trade Quip contravened the Act by representing in its manual and catalogues that certain Australian standards were applicable to a range of its automotive engineering products and that those products had been fully tested to comply with those standards, when this was not the case.
Mr Yarwood was declared by the court to have been directly knowingly concerned in and party to Trade Quip's contraventions of the Act.
In addition to granting an injunction restraining Trade Quip and Mr Yarwood from engaging in the conduct which contravened the Act, the court ordered Trade Quip to pick up any non-compliant jack supplied by Trade Quip which a person wished to return*. Trade Quip was also ordered to implement a trade practices law compliance program.
ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said the ACCC has a central role in actively enforcing a number of important consumer product safety standards under the Act.
"The mandatory standard for hydraulic trolley jacks is such a standard.
"Compliance with such a standard is not optional and is essential from the perspective of consumer safety and, I would have thought, the trader's own self-interest in terms of potential public liability.
"Also, suppliers who make false claims about their products should bear in mind that the ACCC may institute a criminal prosecution against the offending corporation or individual."