The Federal Court held in November 2003 that an air-conditioning supplier engaged in false, misleading and deceptive conduct through representations about the environmental benefits of its products.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) instituted proceedings in the Federal Court alleging contraventions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth).
The Court declared that the company breached section 52 of the Act by representing that its air-conditioning units had environmental benefits when in fact one gas contained in the units was a powerful greenhouse gas, and another was an ozone depleting substance.
The Court made the following orders with the consent of the parties, that the company:
- be restrained from engaging in similar misleading conduct in future promotional activities
- write to businesses and consumers who were supplied the brochure enclosing the Federal Court's orders and the agreed statement of facts
- implement a trade practices compliance program, and
- pay the ACCC's costs.
ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel stated in a press release that, '[e]nvironmental claims, including those in the form of statements, logos and images, must be accurate, clearly identify the environmental benefit to which the claim refers, and must be verifiable'.
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