Arnott’s pays $51k penalty over Shapes claim

DEAR Australia: Arnott’s has been lying to you about Shapes. The snack giant has been forced to pay a hefty penalty over a dodgy claim.

Arnott’s Australia Day Shape minus Tasmania.

WHEN is 75 per cent less fat not actually 75 per cent less fat?

It all depends on the crucial question: compared to what? Arnott’s has found out the hard way, with the snack food giant paying penalties totalling $51,000 for claiming its Shapes Light & Crispy contained “75 per cent less saturated fat”.

Most consumers would read that and assume Arnott’s meant “75 per cent less saturated fat than regular Arnott’s Shapes”, and not “75 per cent less saturated fat than eating the equivalent amount of pure saturated fat”.

The fine print of the claim, contained in a disclaimer on the bottom of the packs, was that Arnott’s was actually referring to potato chips cooked in 100 per cent palm oil. Shapes Light & Crispy in fact contained “approximately 60 per cent less fat than original Shapes”, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

But the consumer watchdog, in issuing the infringement notices, noted that since only around 20 per cent of potato chips sold in Australia are cooked in palm oil, the representation may still have been misleading.

The ACCC came down on Arnotts.

The offending product.

“Consumers should be able to trust the claims that businesses make to sell their products. Small print disclaimers cannot correct false or misleading representations which are made in a prominent way in advertising or on packaging,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said in a statement.

“Businesses must ensure that any comparison claims they make are accurate and based on meaningful comparisons for consumers. This is particularly the case regarding claims that involve healthier eating.

“Truth in advertising, particularly where misleading claims are made by large businesses, is a priority enforcement area for the ACCC.”

Arnott’s has committed to not engage in similar conduct for a period of three years, and will publish a corrective notice on its website and in Foodmagazine.

In a statement, an Arnott’s spokeswoman said the company acknowledged it was “not made sufficiently clear to consumers that Shapes Light & Crispy was intended to be compared to potato chips, rather than the original Shapes savoury biscuits”.

“Arnott’s believed that consumers were familiar with this claim due to its long term use on some potato chips,” she said. “Unlike the original Shapes range, the Light & Crispy range contains potato flakes and has a taste, texture and appearance similar to potato chips.”

She said the packs displaying the claim had been phased out, and wished to emphasise that “although the claim has been removed from packs, the product recipe and ingredients remain the same”.

Paying an infringement notice is not an admission of a contravention of the Australian Consumer Law. The ACCC can issue an infringement notice where it has reasonable grounds to believe the ACL has been contravened.

[e-mail]