Misleading advertising costs Meg’s Flowers $1 million in court ruling

Meg’s Flowers has been ordered to pay a $1 million penalty after a court found it misled consumers by falsely advertising itself as a local florist, breaching Australian Consumer Law.

The ACCC successfully prosecuted a Brisbane-based online florist which admitted to falsely advertising it was a local retailer. Picture: File

A Brisbane-based online florist has been ordered to pay $1 million for misleading advertising in a landmark Federal Court ruling.

Meg’s Flowers admitted falsely claiming it operated as a local florist in each of the towns, suburbs, or localities mentioned on 156 of its websites and in 7462 Google advertisements.

The business filled orders using other brands under its parent company Flowercorp through its location-based websites and a Brisbane-based call centre.

A statement of agreed facts submitted to the Federal Court in June showed it did not maintain any local shopfronts with orders processed at one of its 11 central premises or fulfilled by subcontractors.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission fielded 66 complaints about the business.

Complaints noted that when an Ashgrove resident searched for flower delivery options online Meg’s Flowers showed up with an image of a shop, a banner reading “Ashgrove florist” and the phrase “finest quality flowers in Ashgrove” along with a Queensland phone number.

The ACCC alleged that Meg’s Flowers’ websites for Ashgrove, Caboolture and Tewantin in Queensland; Lane Cove in New South Wales; Mawson Lakes in South Australia; Sunbury in Victoria, and Ellenbrook in Western Australia, used the misleading statements.

ACCC documents included using references to suburbs or towns in the domain name or in a heading on the website.

Other online references documented by the ACCC included a photograph of a florist’s store showing a scooter branded “Meg’s Flowers”.

ACCC fielded 66 complaints about the online claims.

Federal Court Judge Berna Collier found Meg’s Flowers breached the Australian Consumer Law and upheld the ACCC claims, first brought in 2023.

After the decision, ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver warned all businesses to ensure advertising was always accurate and not misleading.

“By making misleading claims about the location of the florists, Meg’s Flowers denied some consumers the opportunity to make an informed decision to support a local business,” Ms Carver said.

“It likely denied truly local businesses the opportunity to make a sale to those consumers.

“We remind businesses in all industries that the claims they make about their products and services, including claims about the location of their business, must be accurate and not mislead consumers.”

The court also ruled that Meg’s Flowers implement a compliance program, publish a corrective notice on its website, and contribute to the ACCC’s legal costs.

Meg’s Flowers co-operated with the ACCC, making admissions and agreeing to joint submissions on the penalty and other orders.

Customers buying flowers online should verify the florist’s local presence by checking for a street address and suburb. Picture: File

The decision put the entire online florist industry on notice and followed an ACCC warning to in 2022 about making false location representations.

The ACCC has been vigilant about misleading representations in the sector.

In December 2022, United Florists, trading as Lily’s Florist, and Elysium Marketing Pty Ltd provided court-enforceable undertakings regarding similar misleading claims.

Another business, Fig & Bloom, removed misleading representations from 940 web pages that implied it was a local business in specific suburbs.

The crackdown continued in March 2024 when Bloomex, another online florist, was fined $1 million for making false and misleading online star ratings and price representations on its website.

Meg’s Flowers could not be contacted.