Darling Downs Fresh Eggs producer fined $250,000 for misleading consumers

A QUEENSLAND eggs producer has been fined $250,000 after the federal court found it had purposely misled consumers.

A QUEENSLAND eggs producer has been fined $250,000 after the Federal Court ruled it had purposely mislead consumers and labelled its eggs as free range, when its hens were always kept inside.

The court found that RL Adams Pty, the company behind Darling Downs Fresh Eggs, mislead consumers by labelling and promoting its eggs as ‘free range’ from December 2013 to October 2014.

During an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the company admitted that it had kept its hens confined to barns at all times, and kept doors shut so the chickens never had access to an outdoor range.

“If birds aren’t going outside, don’t label them as free range,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims told news.com.au.

“Consumers are sometimes paying a 50-100 per cent premium for free range eggs and they make up about 40-50 per cent of sales. We have to make sure consumers getting what they paid for.”

In a statement to news.com.au, RL Adams said it was “so focused” on keeping its hens inside during an outbreak of bird flu that it “inadvertently” broke the ACCC’s rules.

“In effect we are guilty of doing the right thing,” said RL Adams Executive Geoff Sondergeld.

“We were so focused on the biosecurity issue that we didn’t change our packaging from free range to barn or caged.

“We are concerned other egg producers could be taken to court inadvertently unless we have a national code covering all issues of the production of eggs that includes both consumer and hen welfare.”

Mr Sondergeld said Darling Downs followed the Australian Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals.

“When consulting the code Section 2.4.5.3 provides for free range hens not to be ranged when serious outbreaks of disease occur or in instances of severe weather,” he said in the statement.

“We thought we were doing the right thing and in all honesty didn’t think we had done anything wrong.”

Darling Downs is calling for a national standard for the egg industry that covers both Australian consumer law and animal welfare standards.

But the ACCC’s Rod Sims said the definition of free range was common sense.

“You can have all the standards you like, but if the birds cannot go outside, there is no way in the world they can be classified as free range.

“There is a well regarded definition that has come from the courts. That is that the birds must have access to the outdoors and on most days, most birds must feed outdoors. It’s not hard to understand

“I’d be stumped if you found consumers who think free range means anything other than the birds live outside.”

Darling Downs Fresh Eggs supplies eggs from farms located in Queensland, approximately 40km south west of Toowoomba. It sold eggs labelled as ‘free range’ to consumers in Queensland, the Northern Territory and New South Wales.

Darling Downs Fresh Eggs sold eggs under its own ‘Mountain Range’ label and under the ‘Drakes Home Brand Free Range’ label, and supplied to other producers who used them to supplement their own free range supply.

The severity of the penalty was mitigated in part by Rl Adams’ co-operation with the ACCC investigation, said the court.