IT is not easy being green and, while being able to label products environmentally friendly can be a sales boon, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking a hard line on those who try to take shortcuts.
The best evidence of this is the commission’s recent investigation of air conditioner importer Daikin, which had been making environmentally friendly claims.
That investigation ended with Daikin giving undertakings to the ACCC relating to the promotional conduct that the commission considered "misleading and deceptive".
The ACCC considered it to be misleading and deceptive conduct when Daikin claimed that particular refrigerants used in Daikin products were environmentally friendly and that their use would prevent, or at least not contribute to, global warming.
Those claims were published in Daikin brochures and on the company’s website.
ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said: "The outcome of the ACCC’s investigation of Daikin and other air conditioning manufacturers should sound a warning to businesses attempting to promote their products or services using misleading environmental claims".
Gretta Lee
9429 7447
Minter Ellison