The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission appeal comes after a ruling that Woolworths’ claims over compostable and biodegradable picnic products were not misleading
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is continuing its fight against Woolworths' compostable claims (Credit: Flickr, Scott Lewis)
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has appealed a decision by the Federal Court to dismiss its case against supermarket chain Woolworths relating to compostable claims on picnic products.
The independent authority alleged the company made false or misleading claims about its range of disposable plates, bowls and cutlery, which were labelled “biodegradable and compostable”.
The Federal Court dismissed the ACCC’s allegations in July 2019, stating that Woolworths’ picnic products were not a “future matter”, focusing on the inherent characteristics of the product rather than a prediction of a future event.
The judge made the decision because the reference to biodegradable and compostable was about characteristics of the product, rather than a prediction, forecast, promise or opinion of a future event.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims said: “We are appealing this case because we think the biodegradable and compostable claims made by Woolworths were predictions about what would happen to these products in the future.”
“Consumers who pay more for products which businesses represent are better for the environment should be able to assume those claims are true.
“If businesses make claims about future matters, they must have a reasonable basis for those claims.”
A spokesperson for the supermarket giant told ABC it would “continue to defend the matter” after the Federal Court was clear that the picnic products were biodegradable and compostable.
What was the ACCC case over Woolworths’ compostable claims?
The action was taken against Woolworths by the ACCC on 2 March 2018, alleging that the claims made by its ‘W Select eco’ labels on its picnic products were false, misleading or deceptive, in contravention of Australian Consumer Law.
It believes that these labels, used from November 2014 to November 2017, told consumers that the product would biodegrade and compost over a reasonable period of time if put in compost bins or conventional landfill sites.
The ACCC believes the company failed to make reasonable or adequate efforts to substantiate the claims.
Speaking at the time the case was brought, ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said: “Customers paid a premium because they rightfully thought the environmental claims would have been substantiated.
“The ACCC also alleges that Woolworths made these claims in circumstances where it was aware there was confusion among consumers and businesses about the meaning of biodegradable and compostable.
“One of the suppliers of the W Select eco line also had significant qualifications on its website about the biodegradability and compostability of its products.
“Despite all these matters, Woolworths made the representations without explanation or qualification.”
Australia’s Federal Court dismissed the case in July 2019, finding that the use of the terms biodegradable and compostable not to be false or misleading.
The presiding judge said: “I find the consumer would have understood it as meaning no more than that products were capable of biodegrading, and were capable of being composted — in the same way the consumer would have understood the use of the description ‘recyclable’ to refer to the capacity of a product to be recycled.”