Clothes firm admits to false label

Press, 26 September 1989, Page 4

Clothes firm admits to false label

An Auckland clothing firm yesterday pleaded guilty in Christchurch to five charges arising from labelling Fijian-made jackets as made in New Zealand.

Marta Manufacturing, Ltd, of Papakura, trading as Directer Fashions, will be sentenced by Judge Fogarty in the District Court on Thursday. The company, represented by Mr Geoff Langham, admitted two charges of making a false representation over the country of origin of jackets for sale in May last year in its Dunedin shop. The company also admitted two charges of making a misleading representation over the country of origin of jackets stocked in Dunedin, and a similar charge relating to jackets in the firm’s Hastings shop in September last year.

Mr Stuart Wallace, for the Commerce Commission, said a complaint was received about the jackets, for sale at $49.95 at Directer Fashions’ shop in the Centre City Mall, Dunedin, on May 12 last year.

“The complaint alleged that ‘Made in New Zealand’ labels were being attached to jackets which were labelled ‘Made in Fiji’.”

Mr Wallace said the complainant was present when swing tag labels were being attached, which read “Made exclusively in New Zealand for Directer Fashions.”

“When the complainant pointed out the difference between the labels, the shop assistant said that the labels were the only labels which the, shop had and they would continue to put them on.”

Two Commerce Commission officers visited

the shop on June 28 last year and counted 38 of the jackets complained of within the shop. “A few had both ‘Made in Fiji’ and ‘Made in New Zealand’ labels. The remaining jackets had only the ‘Made in New Zealand’ swing tag label.” On July 5 the shop’s manageress was interviewed. She said it was a general instruction from head office to label all garments taken into stock with the Directer Fashions’ swing tag. On July 18 a commission officer questioned the managing director of Directer Fashions at the firm’s Auckland head office. “He stated it must have been an oversight that the ‘Made in New Zealand’ labels were attached to the Fijian garments. He said he would ensure that the next Fijian-made garments were properly labelled.” Mr Wallace said the jackets in question had been distributed to the company’s 14 shops about May 10 last year. Company practice was that all garments sold through the shops were labelled with the Directer Fashions’ swing tag label, which also indicated size, style number and price of the goods. Mr Wallace said jackets which appeared identical were found with dual labelling in Directer Fashions’ Hastings shop on September 13 last year.

Two of the jackets were inspected. Both had “Made in Fiji” labels sewn into them and the swing tag saying, “Made exclusively in New Zealand of Directer Fashions.”

Mr Langham will make submissions for the company on Thursday.