Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Cotton On Clothing Pty Ltd operates 164 retail stores throughout Australia.

Between April and May this year, Cotton On Clothing retail outlets made available for sale to consumers a Home Boots footwear product. The labelling on the swing tag attached to a particular range of Home Boots contained the word “Lambskin”, while inside the footwear the manufacturer’s label indicated the product was completely made of synthetic materials.

The ACCC was concerned that the “Lambskin” representation on the swing tag may have led consumers to believe that the footwear was made of lambskin when this was not the case.

Cotton On Clothing has acknowledged that the lambskin claim was likely to have misled consumers, and therefore likely to have contravened the consumer protection provisions of Trade Practices Act 1974. Cotton On Clothing has provided the ACCC with a section 87B Undertaking that it will:

• not represent their products contain wool or sheep skin unless those products do in fact contain the represented materials;
• cause a corrective notice to be displayed at the main service counter of each  of its Australian retail outlets advising consumers of the incorrect “Lambskin” labelling;
• offer a refund of the purchase price to all Cotton On Clothing customers who purchased a “Lambskin” labelled Home Boot who advise Cotton On Clothing staff they believe they had been misled by the “Lambskin” labelling; and
• develop and implement a trade practices compliance program which includes trade practices law compliance training for relevant staff and a corporate complaints handling system to ensure similar potential breaches of the Act do not occur in the future.