Kids' clothing importer fined $50k

Clothing importer Goodwear Ltd has been fined $50,000 for supplying children’s clothing which did not meet product safety standards.

Following a Commerce Commission investigation, Goodwear pleaded guilty to 16 charges under the Fair Trading Act relating to hundreds of units of children’s clothes supplied between July 2016 and October 2017.

The charges, all under the Fair Trading Act, related to missing or incorrect fire warnings and other labelling on 25 different items of children’s clothing.

Between November 2016 and September 2017 the commission bought 27 garments supplied to two South Auckland retailers by Goodwear.

The garments were sent away to be tested and 11 were found to have not complied with the product safety standard. Eight had no fire warning labels and three had fire warning labels with incorrect wording.

In total, 22 items failed to comply with at least one consumer information standard as they did not include care labelling, fibre content labelling and country of origin labelling.

Commissioner Anna Rawlings said labelling requirements were in place to protect and inform consumers.

“Businesses which supply children’s clothing must be aware of their obligations to label relevant children’s clothing with fire risk warnings and they need to have systems in place to make sure this happens,” Rawlings said.

They should also make sure that they understand other labelling requirements intended to inform consumers about the country of origin and fibre content of their clothing and how to best look after it.”

Goodwear is directed by Auckland man Jian Gao, who could not be reached for comment.

The commission enforces six compulsory product safety standards, including for children’s nightwear, and five consumer information standards, including for care, country of origin and fibre content.

Mandatory product safety standards are intended to prevent and reduce the risk of injury.