WELLINGTON, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- A company and its sole director have been fined for selling duvets falsely labelled as alpaca wool into the New Zealand tourism market, the Commerce Commission said Wednesday.
Rotorua business Budge Collection Ltd. and its director were fined a total of 71,250 NZ dollars (51,913 U.S. dollars) in Auckland District Court after pleading guilty to four charges of misrepresenting how much alpaca fibre was in their duvets.
Budge sold imported duvets to two Auckland retailers that largely catered for the tourist shopping market, said a statement from the commission.
They admitted to falsely claiming on labelling, packaging and on invoices that the alpaca wool duvets contained predominantly pure alpaca wool.
The claims included wording such as "Premium alpaca fibre and wool" and "Natural alpaca fibre", along with alpaca pictures.
Three of the Budge duvets, which the Commission had tested, contained less than 4 percent alpaca fibre.
The statement reported that Judge Rob Ronayne, in sentencing, said the misrepresentations were a breach of trust as they were virtually impossible for retailers or consumers to detect.
Commissioner Anna Rawlings said the tourism market in New Zealand was significant and such offending could reflect negatively on the country's reputation.
"In this case, the price that Budge charged for duvets claimed to be predominantly 'alpaca' was almost double the price charged for sheep wool duvets, when they contained just a small amount of alpaca wool," Rawlings said in the statement.
Budge sold its queen size "alpaca" duvets to a retailer for 185 NZ dollars (135 U.S. dollars), whereas it sold a standard sheep wool or wool blend duvet for around 95 NZ dollars (69 U.S. dollars).
The commission has previously prosecuted nine companies and eight individuals for selling imported alpaca rugs as "Made in New Zealand" and for claiming duvets were predominantly alpaca or merino wool when they were not.
It was the third case taken by the commission in recent months against companies making inaccurate claims about the composition and origin of cashmere and alpaca products.
