Freshly Squeezed Ltd has been fined $10,000 after pleading guilty in Auckland District Court to making misleading claims about its Arano and Fresh Selection juices.
The Commerce Commission took the case against the company following an investigation into 11 companies in the juice industry earlier in the year.
Commission chairwoman Paula Rebstock
said that Freshly Squeezed had made misleading representations relating to the freshness, content and place of origin of its juice products.
In the commission's view, the Arano labels were false or misleading as they implied that the juice was freshly squeezed orange juice made predominantly from New Zealand oranges, when the product contained Brazilian concentrates and/or Australian juice.
Claims made on the Arano label, including statements such as "Delivered Daily" and "Contains the juice of at least 40 freshly squeezed NZ Oranges!!!" reinforced the misleading impression that the product was fresh, Ms Rebstock said in a statement.
In the case of the Fresh Selection range, each of the product labels consisted of the words "Fresh Selection" together with the pictured fruit and name of the relevant juice.
"None of the products were fresh juice," Ms Rebstock. said.
"The commission considered that the labels were liable to mislead the public into thinking the juice was in fact fresh.
"In addition, the company's New Zealand address, with a stylised kiwi logo on the back label of the products, reinforced the impression that the juice was from New Zealand when significant ingredients of the orange juice and tomato juice were imported."
Ms Rebstock said the commission was concerned that consumers pay considerable premiums for fresh New Zealand made juices and should not be misled about what they are buying.
- NZPA
