Minmetals Australia Pty Limited - s.87B undertaking

On 23 October 2003 the Commission accepted court enforceable undertakings from Minmetals Australia Pty Ltd to stop supplying children's toy dart gun sets with suction darts. Traditionally Minmetals' core activities have been in steel but in January 2003 Minmetals opened the business Machoice in Melbourne as a warehouse and wholesale business that imports into Australia from China more than 1,000 different commodities, including children’s toys, hardware, crafts, souvenirs and homewares.

Children's toy dart gun sets supplied with small suction darts are subject to a national ban under the Trade Practices Act. Small darts used in such dart gun sets risk choking children if the darts lodge in the throat. As such these toys pose a serious and unacceptable public safety risk, especially for young children.

Minmetals gave court-enforceable undertakings to the ACCC to:

• cease suppling all of the banned products, and contact all the retailers it had supplied;
• ensure each retailer it supplied with the banned products displays an in-store notice that outlines the ban (in English, Chinese and Vietnamese) and offers refunds;
• place a recall notice in relevant community newspapers in all the areas where the sets were sold; and
• implement a trade practices corporate compliance program.