Mosaic Brands Limited

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accepted a court enforceable undertaking from Mosaic Brands Limited (Mosaic Brands) in relation to representations concerning Health Essentials Products that likely contravened sections 18, 29(1)(a), 29(1)(g), and 29(1)(m) of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

Mosaic Brands owns the specialty fashion brands Katies, Noni B, Rockmans, Rivers, BeMe, Crossroads, Millers, W.Lane and Autograph.

Mosaic Brands has admitted that at various dates between March 2020 and July 2020, Mosaic Brands engaged in misleading or deceptive and made false or misleading representations in breach of sections 18 and 29 of the ACL by advertising that:

• Air Clean hand sanitiser sold by Mosaic Brands contained 70% alcohol when this was not the case;
• Miaoyue hand sanitiser sold by Mosaic Brands contained 75% alcohol when this was not the case;
• Velcare hand sanitiser sold by Mosaic Brands was approved by the World Health Organisation when this was not the case;
• KN95 Kids Safety Face Mask sold by Mosaic Brands was ‘FDA/CE Certified’ when this was not the case; and
• Health Essentials products advertised on its websites were non-refundable, when in fact consumers have a statutory right to a refund under the consumer guarantee remedies.

To address the ACCC’s concerns, Mosaic Brands has paid five infringement notice penalties and provided the ACCC with a section 87B undertaking that for a period of 3 years it will:

• properly substantiate composition and approval claims with respect to Health Essentials Products, including by commissioning of independent laboratory testing;
• establish and implement an ACL compliance program to develop and implement policies and procedures to prevent future breaches of the ACL;
• engage an independent reviewer to conduct an annual compliance review;
• report regularly to the board of Mosaic Brands and the ACCC regarding the operation of the compliance program; and
• offer refunds to customers affected by the conduct.

With respect to the refund program, Mosaic Brands will identify and contact consumers who:

• purchased sanitiser in the same batches as the samples which tested below advertised alcohol concentrations to arrange a refund of the purchase price;
• purchased the KN95 Kids Safety face masks to arrange a refund of the purchase price; or
• were originally refused a refund on the basis the product was non-refundable, and invite them to have their refund re-assessed.

In addition, any customer who purchased the Velcare product relying on the representation that the product was ‘WHO-approved’ can also apply for a refund. A corrective notice and further information about how to apply for a refund will be made available on the websites of Noni B, Autograph, BeMe, Crossroads, Katies, Millers, Rivers, Rockmans or W.Lane.