Woolworths has had to pay $100,000 over misleading meat vouchers.
IN A rare event, Woolworths will have to chew on a meaty $102,000 fine for undercooked discount vouchers. Well done.
The Queensland Office of Fair Trading (QOFT) issued the penalty after an investigation into a number of vouchers circulated to mailboxes in and around Brisbane in February 2015.
According to the QOFT, the vouchers stated ‘20 per cent off all meat purchases’, when in fact the discount only applied to fresh meat purchased from the Woolworths meat department.
It did not apply to meat from the delicatessen, frozen or other types of meat.
QOFT said consumers purchasing meat other than fresh meat were not given the discount even though the voucher had no conditions on it excluding such purchases.
“A subsequent investigation by the QOFT revealed the voucher did not provide any terms and conditions in relation to the offer,” the watchdog said.
“Nor did it clarify what type of meat qualified for the discount, making it reasonable to assume that it applied to all types for sale within the store.”
Woolworths later changed the terms and conditions of the voucher for subsequent promotions to include print stating “must be spent in one transaction on purchases from the meat department”.
The South Australian version of the same voucher. (Image: QOFT)Source:Supplied
Queensland Fair Trading executive director Brian Bauer said in a statement while there was no evidence Woolworths set out to deliberately mislead, the rights of consumers must be protected.
“Businesses have a legal obligation to check and identify potentially misleading information before distributing it to consumers,” Mr Bauer said.
“Queensland consumers spend a significant percentage of their income in supermarkets and should be able to rely on the representations being made to them by both large and small retailers.
“Savvy consumers often rely on supermarket discount vouchers to ensure they are obtaining the best possible value from their weekly grocery spend. Representations made about price should match the price charged to consumers at check-out.”
Mr Bauer said these types of fines acted as a deterrent to all major retailers to ensure they were not providing misleading information to consumers and complying with the Australian Consumer Law.
In a statement, a Woolworths spokesman said: “Woolworths acknowledges the fine by the Queensland Office of Fair Trading in relation to a letterbox drop voucher in some parts of Brisbane.”
“We apologise to our customers that the details of a meat promotion were unclear. Woolworths noted the issue quickly and changed the details of the offer in the following week’s voucher.
“We thank the Queensland Office of Fair Trading for their acknowledgement that Woolworths had no intention to deceive customers. We also note the amount of the fine is set by legislation.”
frank.chung@news.com.au
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