Decathlon admits selling potentially deadly sport equipment

Sporting goods retailer Decathlon has waved the white flag in a Federal Court case brought by the ACCC, admitting it sold dangerous pools and basketball equipment. SEE THE ITEMS HERE.

Sports megastore Decathlon is opening up at Moorabbin. Are pictured during the official opening on Friday 15th Nov, 2019.

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Hundreds of Australian families were sold unsafe inflatable swimming pools and basketball rings by sports equipment retailer Decathlon.

­­The Daily Telegraph can reveal the French giant has filed a document in the Federal Court in which it admits it engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct, made false or misleading representations and sold goods that didn’t comply with safety standards.

It made the admissions in response to legal action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which had alleged that over nearly four years to December 2019, Decathlon sold 400 basketball rings and backboards, as well as nearly 300 inflatable pools that did not carry mandatory warnings of the risk of serious injury or death from misuse.

Sports megastore Decathlon.

“Each of Decathlon’s contraventions of the ACL was reckless, or occurred in circumstances where Decathlon consciously courted the risk of misleading consumers,” the ACCC had said in the documents it filed to commence the court action in July.

In its response, filed last week, Decathlon waved the white flag.

“Decathlon accepts that it would be appropriate for the court to make declarations of contravention,” the company said in the document, obtained by The Daily Telegraph from the court.

It also conceded “the imposition of a pecuniary penalty may be appropriate in the circumstances”.

However, Decathlon added it had never breached the ACL before and had tried to mitigate and remedy the harm as soon as it became aware of the consumer law breaches.

Plus, it noted that it hadn’t sold many of the products.

This Decathlon pool was among those sold without warnings. Source: Decathlon

“The extent of the harm should be assessed taking into account that the number of basketball rings and backboards and portable swimming pools that were supplied was relatively small,” the company said.

It has not been alleged that any child was hurt while using the products.

The company disputed the ACCC’s characterisation of its behaviour.

“Decathlon did not act recklessly or consciously court the risk of misleading consumers,” it said.

On top of this, the company argued that some of the basketball products didn’t contain backboards and therefore weren’t covered by the official standard.

Decathlon sold 400 basketball rings and backboards, as well as nearly 300 inflatable pools that did not carry mandatory warnings.

The standard for basketball rings and backboards was introduced in 2005 following deaths in 1996, 1998 and 2002. Since the standard has been in place there has been one death — involving a compliant product.

In the 16 years to July 2018, 23 Australian children drowned in portable pools. None was supervised, which is a key message in the mandatory warning that was missing from Decathlon’s products.

Decathlon arrived in Australia in 2014. Its last publicly available financial statements – obtained by The Telegraph – cover calendar 2018 and show it lost $10.7 million on revenue of $17.3 million. That was a bigger loss than in the previous year.

Decathlon has two stores in Sydney — Tempe and Auburn. It also has three in Melbourne. It has 1500 stores worldwide in 57 countries.

Originally published as Decathlon admits selling potentially deadly sport equipment