An egg company has been slapped with a $300,000 fine after the Federal Court found it misled consumers about its free-range credentials.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) took the NSW-based Pirovic Enterprises to court over cartons labelled "Pirovic Free Range Eggs".
Justice Geoffrey Flick on Tuesday found the company's packaging and advertising would have left most shoppers believing the eggs were produced by laying hens that were usually able to move around freely on an open range.
But the stocking densities and flock sizes in Pirovic's barns, along with the number, size, placement and operation of the physical openings to the open range, meant that most of the laying hens did not move about freely on an open range on most ordinary days, Justice Flick found.
Pirovic "engaged in conduct that was misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive", Justice Flick said in his judgment.
He has fined the company $300,000 and ordered it to establish a Trade Practices Compliance Program within three months, which it must maintain for three years.
The company must also pay $25,000 in costs.
