Fines for fake 'free-range' claims aren't poultry

Snowdale Holdings has been ordered to pay a total of $750,000 in penalties for making false or misleading representations that its eggs were ‘free-range’.

The company is joining others that have been prosecuted for faking their free-range claims:

• Free Range Egg Farms — $300,000 penalty
• Pirovic Enterprises — $300,000 penalty
• Darling Downs Fresh Eggs — $250,000 penalty

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is working to ensure that free-range claims by egg marketers meet the national information standard under the Australian Consumer Law, which requires eggs labelled as free-range to have been laid by hens with meaningful and regular access to the outdoors and with a maximum outdoor stocking density of 10,000 hens.

“Consumers pay a higher price for free-range eggs, so when a free-range claim is made, it’s important that consumers are purchasing eggs laid by chickens in free-range conditions,” explained ACCC Commissioner Mick Keogh.

“Farmers who have invested in changes to their farming practices so they can make valid credence claims such as free-range also need protection from others making false credence claims,” Keogh added.

Snowdale’s penalty is the highest that a court has ordered in relation to misleading free-range egg claims to date.

As one of Western Australia’s largest egg producers, Snowdale supplies eggs labelled as caged, barn-laid and free-range to various retailers. The company supplied eggs labelled as free-range under brands including Eggs by Ellah, Swan Valley Free Range and Wanneroo Free Range. Snowdale also promoted its eggs as free-range on the Eggs by Ellah website from May 2013.

In May 2016 the Federal Court found that Snowdale’s labelling of its eggs as free-range between April 2011 and December 2013 was misleading or deceptive, and amounted to false or misleading representations. The court found that most of the hens from Snowdale’s sheds did not go outside as the farming conditions significantly inhibited them from doing so. These conditions included the number of pop holes, the number of birds per metre of pop hole, the flock size inside the shed and the shed size.

The court also made an order preventing Snowdale from using the words ‘free-range’ in connection with its eggs unless the eggs are produced by hens that are able to go outside on ordinary days, and most of which actually go outside on most days.

Snowdale was also ordered to implement a consumer law compliance program and pay a contribution towards the ACCC’s costs.