Blackmores Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Blackmores principal activities include the manufacturing and marketing of vitamins, herbal and mineral supplements and nature based cosmetics. Blackmores labels and markets its cod liver oil products as "Made in Australia". The oil is sourced from North Atlantic deep-sea cod fish. The ACCC considered the representation to be in breach of the TPA. Blackmores undertook to: cease promoting the Cod Liver Oil as "Made in Australia" on 25 march 1999, placed corrective advertising in newspapers; and sent over-stickers to retail outlets; institute a trade practices compliance program; and offered refunds to customers misled by the representations. Blackmores have further undertaken to: not supply CLO labelled "made in Australia"; systematically visit retail outlets selling CLO to ensure labels are correct, or are corrected by oversticking; report to the ACCC on a regular basis. The Undertaking was amended on 9 December 1999, to cover bottled liquid cod liver oil only. As a result of the public consultations on the draft Country of Origin Guidelines for the Complementary Health Care Industry, the Commission accepted the industry's view that generally encapsulation of imported raw materials qualifies as substantial transformation, and that if the products also meet the minimum fifty percent local content requirement they may be labelled Made in Australia.