Fashion label World admits it misled buyers
Fashion brand and retailer World has admitted it probably broke the law with the labelling of some of its imported clothing.
It has agreed to ensure its clothing is accurately labelled in future after accepting the Commerce Commission’s view that some labelling was liable to mislead consumers about garment’s place of origin.
It will also refund any customers who return the garments at issue to World.
The Fair Trading Act prohibits firms from misleading consumers about a product’s country of origin.
The watchdog said swing tags reading ‘‘Fabrique en Nouvelle-zelande’’ (‘‘made in New Zealand’’) were likely to have led consumers to think the garments were made in
New Zealand when in fact they were made in China or Bangladesh.
Commissioner Anna Rawlings said, although another label was stitched inside each garment with the correct country of origin, this might not have been noticed in many instances and might have confused consumers who read the label and saw that it was inconsistent with the tag.
‘‘The truthfulness of information about country of origin is particularly important because consumers cannot check the accuracy of this kind of labelling for themselves,’’ she said. When the error was raised in an article by The Spinoff, World immediately amended the tags on its imported garments. The T-shirts, sweatshirts and trackpants are no longer for sale on its website. World has agreed that it will not use any tag or labelling with the phrase ‘‘Fabrique en Nouvelle Zelande’’ on any imported garments.
It will also implement compliance procedures to ensure claims about its products’ origins are accurate and able to be substantiated.
From 2009 to May 2018, World estimates that it offered more than 1100 T-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants for sale that were manufactured overseas, but had the ‘‘Fabrique en Nouvelle Zelande’’ swing tag.
Ninety-nine per cent of the clothing it sold during the same period was made in New Zealand.
World is owned by co-founders Dame Denise L’estrange-corbet and Francis Hooper, and designer Ben Castles. The trio are also directors of the company.
Castles is a judge on reality television show Project Runway New Zealand.