Kimberly-Clark ordered to pay $200K for false ‘made in Australia’ attribution
Kimberly-Clark Australia has been ordered to pay $200,000 for misleading consumers by falsely representing that items sold were made in Australia.
The Federal Court found that Kleenex Cottonelle ‘flushable cleansing cloths’ were promoted on the brand’s website as made in Australia, when they were actually made in Germany, South Korea or the UK.
The false representations were made on the product website between 28 October 2015 and 24 February 2016, while the product packaging contained the correct information about where the wipes were made.
In June 2019, the Federal Court had found that Kimberly-Clark made false or misleading representations that the products were Australian made after Kimberly-Clark admitted this during the court case.
Source: Kimberly-Clark website
“We know many Australian consumers place a premium on goods that are Australian made,” the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chair Rod Sims said.
“This penalty should remind businesses of their responsibilities to ensure that representations on their website or packaging about the country of origin are accurate, so that consumers can make informed purchasing decisions,” Sims said.
In the same case, the court dismissed the major aspect of ACCC case about whether the wipes were suitable to be flushed down the toilet, finding the company had not made false and misleading claims about the flushabilty of the wipes. These findings were upheld by the Full Federal Court on appeal.
This case related to a type of wipes sold by Kimberly-Clark between May 2013 and May 2016. The products have since been discontinued, and replaced with a different range of flushable wipes.
The ACCC instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Kimberly-Clark, and separately against Pental Limited and Pental Products in December 2016.
On 28 June 2019, the Federal Court judgment dismissed the majority of the ACCC’s case, except for finding that Kimberly Clark’s ‘made in Australia’ representation was misleading.
On 26 July 2019, the ACCC filed an appeal against Federal Court’s decision in relation to the ‘flushable’ representations.On 15 June 2020, the Full Federal Court dismissed the ACCC’s appeal.
Kimberly-Clark agreed with the ACCC to make joint submissions to the court in relation to the penalty.
The ACCC was initially made aware of Kimberly-Clark’s ‘flushable’ claims following a complaint from Choice in October 2015, after it awarded a ‘Shonky’ to the Kleenex Wipes for Kids. The ‘made in Australia’ representation was identified during the course of the ACCC’s investigation.
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Olivia Kruimel is the managing editor at Mumbrella. She has more than 15 years of experience in journalism, communications and marketing. Her journalism career began at Fairfax Media (now part of Nine) and includes various B2B publications such as B&T, Travel Today and ALB. As a marketer Olivia has worked for Standard Chartered and various global law firms.
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