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Big W is a trading division of Woolworths comprising of 159 Big W discount department stores throughout Australia.  Big W stores sell a range of general merchandise products, including children’s nightwear products. In or around September 2009 and in November 2009, the ACCC conducted routine surveys on children’s nightwear products sold in retail outlets, including Big W stores.  Testing commissioned by the ACCC as part of these surveys indicated that three children’s nightwear products sold in Big W stores were incorrectly labelled as “low fire danger”.  Under the mandatory standard for the labelling of children’s nightwear, these products should have been labelled “warning high fire danger keep away from fire”.  The products had been supplied to Big W by Vinetex & Co Pty Ltd. Woolworths acknowledges that by offering these products for retail sale in circumstances where the garments carried the incorrect fire warning label it was likely to have contravened sections 52, 53(a), 53(c) and 65C of the Trade Practices Act. When contacted by the ACCC Woolworths undertook corrective action by conducting a voluntary recall of 27 lines of garments on 26 September 2009 and an additional 8 lines on 7 October 2009.  Big W also issued a public apology notice on 12 December 2009.

Vinetex & Co Pty Ltd (Vinetex) is a privately owned Australian company.  It carries on a business of purchasing a range of garments from Chinese suppliers and on-selling this clothing to Australian retail outlets, including Big W. In or around September 2009 and in November 2009, the ACCC conducted routine surveys on children’s nightwear products sold in retail outlets, including Big W stores.  Testing commissioned by the ACCC as part of these surveys indicated that three children’s nightwear products sold in Big W stores were incorrectly labelled as “low fire danger”.  Under the mandatory standard for the labelling of children’s nightwear, these products should have been labelled “warning high fire danger keep away from fire”. Vinetex acknowledges that by supplying the children’s nightwear products to Big W that carried the incorrect fire warning label it was likely to have contravened sections 52, 53(a), 53(c) and 65C of the Trade Practices Act. Vinetex has provided an undertaking to the ACCC that it will refrain from supplying children’s nightwear products that do not comply with the standard and that it will establish a Trade Practices Compliance Program.