Ladder company fined $153,000 for misleading buyers

Brand Developers Limited (BDL) was fined in Auckland District Court for charges relating to wrongly claiming that its Transforma ladders had a certified load rating of 180kg.

The Commerce Commission's first prosecution of a company for selling or advertising a product covered by an "Unsafe Goods Notice" has resulted in a $153,000 fine.

The commission said Brand Developers Limited (BDL) was fined in Auckland District Court for charges relating to wrongly claiming that its Transforma ladders had a certified load rating of 180kg and for selling ladders in breach of an Unsafe Goods Notice prohibiting their sale.

The Auckland-based company, which also trades as the TV Shop, pleaded guilty to five charges under the Fair Trading Act 1986 relating to the sale and advertising of the Transforma brand of multipurpose ladders between March 2010 and March 2013, the commission said in a statement.

In his sentencing Judge Fraser said: "A condign sentence will be imposed when safety is an issue. The Fair Trading Act is as much to protect consumers from physical harm as financial harm."

BDL misrepresented that the TR24 and TR35 Transforma Ladders complied with the Australian and New Zealand Standard for Portable Ladders to a load rating of 180kg when they had not been tested against all parts of the standard at this rating, the commission said.

BDL continued to advertise and sell the ladders without ensuring that they had been fully tested, even after the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment issued an unsafe goods notice preventing the sale of multipurpose ladders that did not meet the standard.

"When the commission tested the ladders in early 2013 at a load rating of 180kg, both models failed to meet the standard. One ladder became deformed during testing and the testing had to be abandoned," a statement said.

Anna Rawlings, commissioner, said that although the ladders were introduced to the market with a load rating of 120kg, by the time BDL was trading in March 2010, the load rating on the ladder labels had changed to 180kg.

"BDL's conduct put the safety of consumers at risk. The 180kg load rating provided a point of difference in advertising the ladders but BDL did not carry out the required testing to ensure that the ladders were safe to use at that weight. And they weren't.

"MBIE issued the Unsafe Goods Notice because it considered that multipurpose ladders that didn't meet the standard were, or could be, unsafe. But BDL continued to advertise and supply the ladders even though they had not been tested to make sure that they complied and could legally be sold," she said.

About 7800 ladders were sold by BDL directly to consumers through infomercials and to New Zealand suppliers.

Advertisements for the Transforma ladders were shown on various television channels and claimed that 'the ladder meets or exceeds New Zealand safety standards for portable ladders' and that 'it is rated to a whopping 180kg.' Labels on each ladder also incorrectly said that the ladder was 'rated industrial and is designed to carry a maximum load of 180kg.'