Aussia Australia Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Between January 2003 and August 2006 Aussia Australia Pty Ltd (Aussia), a supplier of complementary medicine products, represented that two products which it supplied, Squalene and Propolis, were 'made in Australia'.

ACCC investigation of the 'made in Australia' claims revealed that some batches of these products were imported from New Zealand in tablet or capsule form and only the packaging of the products was undertaken in Australia.  In these circumstances the ACCC was concerned that the representations that the products were made in Australia were misleading and deceptive and likely to contravene sections 52, 53(a), 53(b) and 55 of the TPA.

In addition, Aussia made a number of representations on its website to the effect that Aussia was a company involved in research, development, manufacturing and sales and that Aussia had its own modern factory located in Sydney. During the ACCC investigation Aussia acknowledged that it was not able to substantiate these representations. Aussia has since amended its website.

In response to the ACCC's concerns, Aussia has provided the ACCC with a court enforceable undertaking to:

not represent that goods it supplies have been made in Australia unless those goods satisfy the test under section 65AB of the Act for country of origin claims.  Namely, that those goods have been substantially transformed in Australia or more than 50% of the manufacturing costs are attributable to manufacturing processes that have occurred in Australia;

remove any representations from current stock that goods were made in Australia unless those goods satisfy the test under the Act for country of origin claims;

advise resellers and purchasers of any incorrectly labelled products;

review its advertising and promotional material to ensure that any representations comply with the TPA;

publish a corrective newspaper article in an appropriate Chinese language publication; and

undertake a trade practices compliance program.