Legend Australia Holdings Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Legend Australia Holdings Pty Ltd (Legend) has provided a court enforceable undertaking to the ACCC in respect to representations concerning its Logan & Mason ‘Ultima’ goose down quilts.

Legend has represented to consumers that its Logan & Mason ‘Ultima’ quilts contain 100% goose down.  It is widely acknowledged in the down products industry that it is highly unlikely that 100% down content could be achieved under normal commercial manufacturing processes.

ACCC testing of a Legend ‘Ultima’ quilt represented as containing 100% goose down showed that the quilt contained significantly less goose down than the represented 100%.  The ‘Ultima’ quilt was calculated to contain 83.9% goose down (with no additional duck down).

Legend advised the ACCC that its 100% down content claims were made in reliance on test reports from its overseas supplier and on labelling percentage ‘tolerances’ allowed under the Australian Standard 2479-1987 (Down and/or feather filling materials and filled products), and that it had not intended to mislead or deceive consumers.

Legend has undertaken to:

• not promote that its ‘Ultima’ or other down products that it supplies contain 100% down, given that normal commercial manufacturing processes are very unlikely to achieve this percentage of down content;
• not make any other down content percentage representations which include any percentage tolerance or allowance;
• not make any down content percentage representations that it cannot substantiate by way of periodic testing of a representative sample of its finished down products by International Down & Feather Bureau (IDFB) approved testing methods for down and feather products;
• place corrective newspaper advertisements in each State and Territory in which its ‘Ultima’ quilts represented as containing 100% goose down have been sold; and
• establish a trade practices compliance program.