Two importers have been collectively fined $118,000 for breaches to the product safety standard for children’s toys.
SDL Trading Limited was fined $64,000 after pleading guilty to one representative charge under the Fair Trading Act 1986 in the Auckland District Court. It was SDL’s second such prosecution by the Commerce Commission, after being fined $81,000 in March 2018, the Commission said today in a press release.
Greenstar Holdings Limited was earlier fined $54,000 after pleading guilty to four representative charges in the Manukau District Court.
SDL's charge relates to a total of 348 fire engine toys it supplied to retailers throughout the country between October 2017 and August 2018 which did not comply with the product safety standard for children’s toys.
It's unknown how many were sold to the public.
Various parts - including a ladder, side doors, a firehose and a small piece of plastic - broke from one of the toys in one of the tests undertaken to assess compliance with applicable legal requirements.
In sentencing in the Auckland District Court on August 28, Judge Paul said the conduct was "highly careless," noting that the importer was "on notice and armed with the necessary knowledge of the need to comply with the product safety standard".
Judge Paul said that despite some compliance efforts "there was not a critical review of the compliance regime undertaken" and the efforts "were woefully inadequate".
The display box for the fire truck toy carried warnings stating "3+ Ages" and "Not for children under 3 years". A psychologist, providing evidence to the Commerce Commission, said the toy was for use by children under 3 years of age for various reasons, including its size and weight, simple design, bright and contrasting colours and easy recognisability as an emergency vehicle.
"Both of these cases reiterate that traders cannot avoid their obligations in relation to toys that are for use by children aged up to and including 36 months of age simply by labelling them as suitable for children aged over 3 years of age", Commerce Commission chair Anna Rawlings said.
Rawlings said it is the second time the importer has been prosecuted for product safety issues, after being fined $81,000 for supplying an unsafe baby bath toy in March 2018.
"Traders must take steps to learn about product safety standards and use a thorough process to assess the goods they are selling for compliance with those standards."
Meanwhile, in his sentencing notes, Manukau District Court Judge Blackie called importer Greenstar's offending "highly careless" and noted that sentences being imposed for similar offences "are not sending the message to importers, distributors and retailers".
"[It] is the very young children at risk. They do not have the ability to assess a hazard or potential hazard as does an older person. A number of traders … have been profiting from the distribution of these goods."
Judge Blackie said the "substantially higher penalties could be justified" in order to ensure the safety of young and vulnerable children.
Greenstar had earlier pleaded guilty to four representative charges relating to the supply of 217 units of four different toy animal sets between November 2017 and February 2019.
The toys either contained squeakers which came out during testing, and/or the toys were small enough to pass through a testing template.
Three of the toy sets were labelled with symbols indicating the toy was not for children aged 0-3 years, or wording such as "Warning: Choking Hazard: Small parts. Not for children under 3 years".
Judge Blackie called the age suitability indications "clearly inadequate and misleading".
"The market for the toys, known to almost every New Zealander who has raised a family, is … play things for infants in the bath."
He said Greenstar "did not carry out any checks of its own to ensure compliance" but instead "simply relied" on what was considered a "dangerously misleading and inadequate" warning label.
The commission has now completed 24 product safety prosecutions - including for products other than toys - since the start of 2017, with fines totalling more than $1.5 million.
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