Harris Scarfe Australia Pty Ltd - s.87B undertaking

Harris Scarfe Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Harris Scarfe, has provided a court enforceable undertaking to the ACCC in respect to representations concerning its own-brand ‘Home Statements Signature Collection’ goose down quilts.

Harris Scarfe has represented to consumers that its ‘Home Statements Signature Collection’ 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 Harris Scarfe ‘Home Statements Signature Collection’ quilt represented as containing 100% goose down showed that the quilt contained significantly less goose down than the represented 100%.  The ‘Home Statements Signature Collection’ quilt was calculated to contain 73.0% goose down with an additional 1.8% duck down.

Harris Scarfe advised the ACCC that its 100% down content claims were made in reliance on its down content specifications to 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.

Harris Scarfe has undertaken to:

• not promote that any of its own-brand products 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 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 a corrective notice on its web-site for 90 days;
• place corrective newspaper advertisements in each State and Territory in which ‘Home Statements Signature Collection’ goose down quilts have been sold, offering refunds to consumers who purchased the quilts; and
• amend its existing trade practices compliance program to provide for two independent reviews on the effectiveness of its compliance program.