A major egg supplier has been fined $300,000 for misleading shoppers with labels claiming its products were free range.
The Federal Court fined Free Range Egg Farms, which sells under the Ecoeggs, Port Stephens and Field Fresh brands, after upholding a claim by the consumer watchdog that its hens did not have enough outdoor access to be called free range.
Free Range Egg Farms sells in every state and territory except in Tasmania.
The court found that the company led consumers to believe that the eggs were produced by hens that moved about freely on an open range.
In reality, hens from some of the supplier farms were unable to do so because of the number of animals kept in barns, combined with the size, placement and use of the exits.
"Where free range egg claims are not true, consumers are harmed and, as important, other egg suppliers who are producing eggs that are genuinely free range are disadvantaged," Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Simms said.
The brands were all promoted as free range between 2012 and 2014, which was misleading and involved powerful images and wording to sell the products, Justice James Edelman said in his judgment.
Commonwealth, state and territory consumer affairs ministers last month agreed on Australia's first national standard for free range eggs.
