Origin of goods
When deciding to purchase goods, customers will often be influenced by the origin of those goods. They may prefer to buy New Zealand-made products, or believe that goods made in certain countries are preferable to others.
Businesses must avoid misleading consumers about where goods are made. It is not just words that can be misleading. Symbols such as kiwis, flags or other national emblems can also convey false or misleading impressions as to place of origin.
A place of origin can be defined as the country or region where the product was created in its final form from its raw materials or constituent parts. In other words, it is the country or region where the product’s ‘essential quality’ was created. It is not necessarily the place where the most money was spent on a product – and it is not the place where only final assembly or packaging was done.
For example, orange juice which is made from imported concentrate which has water added and is bottled in New Zealand, could be labelled ‘Bottled in New Zealand from imported concentrate’. It is the concentrate which gives the juice its essential character, not the water or the bottling.
When a product has been worked on, or added to, in several places, it may be misleading to claim a place of origin. In such cases, to avoid making misleading claims about where the product was made, explicit terms such as ‘assembled’, ‘packaged’ or ‘blended’ should be used.
The Commission encourages businesses to list their contact details on goods, but care needs to be taken to ensure that those details do not create a misleading impression about the origin of the product. The Commission’s approach is that where contact details may give the impression of a place of origin that is different from where a product gained its essential quality, sufficient information should be put as prominently as possible on the label to indicate that the product came from elsewhere.
Importers should also note that the Customs Act 1966 prohibits the importation of goods which are falsely described – and this includes labels which are deceptive about their place of origin.
Examples
A local juice manufacturer promoted its orange juice as being made from local oranges. 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 in fact significant ingredients were imported from Brazil and/or Australia. The company was convicted and fined.
A distributor falsely represented that canned tomatoes from Spain were of New Zealand origin. Although ‘Espana’ was stamped on the top of the can, the wrap-around label said ‘Product of New Zealand’. The distributor was convicted and fined.
A business falsely represented the place of origin of jackets by removing a ‘Made in Korea’ label, leaving attached a label marked ‘Christchurch New Zealand’, and affixing a swing tag which included the name and New Zealand address of the manufacturing company which imported the clothing. The business was convicted and fined.