Country of origin representations: when you can safely make an origin claim

Published: 4 May 2017

Transcript

If you make a claim that your product originated from a particular country the Australian Consumer Law (or ACL) requires that the claim be one – truthful, two – clear, and three – accurate.

Of course, with all the different ingredients or components that can make up a product, as well as the possibility of processing in multiple countries, it’s not always that easy working out what type of claim to make about your product. So to help out, the ACL outlines four situations where you can safely make a country of origin claim without it raising concerns under the law.

These are when you can show that your product was – one – grown in a particular country, two – produced in a particular country, three – made, manufactured or originated in a particular country or four – carries a mark in the country of origin food labelling information standard.

Each category has its own conditions that must be met. If you’re able to show that your product fits in one of these categories, you will have an automatic defence against allegations that the claim is false, misleading, or deceptive. These are called the safe harbour defences, and they exist to provide you with peace of mind when you make a country of origin claim.