The Federal Court has ordered Landmark Operations Limited (trading as Seednet) to pay a $1 million penalty for making false, misleading and deceptive claims in a fact sheet for its barley variety known as ‘Compass’.
The Federal Court has ordered former Murray Goulburn Co-operative Managing Director Gary Helou to pay $200,000 in penalties for being knowingly concerned in Murray Goulburn’s false or misleading claims about the farmgate milk price it expected to pay dairy farmers during the 2015-16 milk season.
“The penalty imposed against Mr Helou reflects his seniority at Murray Goulburn and involvement in misleading representations about the farmgate milk price,” ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said.
Dairy processors Brownes Food Operations, Lion Dairy & Drinks, Norco Co-operative Limited, Parmalat Australia and Fonterra Australia have each agreed to amend specific terms in their milk supply agreements to address the ACCC’s concerns these terms were unfair to dairy farmers.
The ACCC has been working with dairy processors over the past year to ensure that terms in the contracts they offer farmers comply with the business-to-business unfair contract terms law enacted by the Australian Government in November 2016.
The ACCC has concluded its investigation into allegations Capilano Honey Limited (Capilano) breached the Australian Consumer Law in relation to representations about its ‘Allowrie’ honey and other products.
The investigation followed allegations in the media that a number of honey products including Capilano’s ‘Allowrie’ honey, labelled ‘pure’ and ‘100% honey’ were adulterated with sugar syrup.
The wine grape industry will be the focus of a new ACCC market study, announced today.
The study will examine competition, contracting practices, transparency, and risk allocation issues in the wine grape supply chain.
“We are undertaking this market study after wine grape growers raised concerns about a range of competition issues and contracting practices in the industry,” ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said.
The ACCC has warned dairy processors not to mislead farmers about milk prices, following reports of processors blaming their private-label milk contracts with supermarkets for the low prices offered to farmers.