A company and its director who breached the Australian Consumer Law’s product safety provisions have been ordered to pay penalties totalling $415,000, plus $15,000 in costs.
Consumer Affairs Victoria took action in the Federal Court of Australia against Wens Bros Trading Pty Ltd (ACN: 602 345 504) and its sole director Wen Hui Xu, 60, of Clayton, after the company first came to our attention during a routine compliance inspection - this led to further investigations and the seizure of more than 20,000 items.
The court found that the company supplied, offered to supply, and had in its possession or control, goods that:
- did not meet relevant product safety standards or information standards, or
- were subject to a permanent ban order.
The court found that Mr Xu was knowingly involved in the company’s breaches.
The products involved in the case were:
- aquatic/flotation devices, portable swimming pools and elastic luggage straps that did not include appropriate warnings of their dangers if used incorrectly
- hot water bottles and children’s toys that did not comply with the relevant safety standard
- cosmetics whose ingredients were not correctly labelled
- sunglasses that did not include the appropriate information
- yo-yo water balls and combustible candles that have been permanently banned from sale in Australia.
The items were available from 1 January 2015 until at least June 2017.
As well as the financial penalties, Wens Bros Trading and Mr Xu:
- cannot supply any goods that are subject to an information standard, safety standard or ban order
- must provide a full refund to any consumer returning any of the goods
- must pay for the destruction of all the seized goods.
The company and Mr Xu must also arrange for a public safety warning and recall notice to be:
- published in either the Herald Sun or The Age newspaper, and
- displayed at all premises where the company supplies goods to consumers.
Our Director has previously issued two public warnings about goods supplied by Wens Bros Trading:
For more photos and information (including refund details) about the items that were subject to this matter, visit the Product Safety Australia website and search for “Wens Bros Trading”.