Two businesses and four associated individuals face charges for making false or misleading claims about the origin and composition of their cashmere and alpaca products.
Two businesses and four associated individuals face charges for making false or misleading claims about the origin and composition of their cashmere and alpaca products.
Princess Wool Co Limited (Princess Wool) and Nangong Limited (Nangong) today appeared in Auckland District Court on the charges brought by the Commerce Commission.
Princess Wool, Koo Yoarn Lee and Kevin Stocker entered not guilty pleas. Nangong, Yun Qiang Hou and Caicai Hou were remanded without plea until 8 March 2016.
Princess Wool and Nangong sell their products to Auckland retailers or wholesalers that mainly cater to the Asian tourist market. They also have Auckland premises from where their product is sold to organised Chinese and Korean tour groups.
Princess Wool faces 50 charges against the business and Mr Lee and Mr Stocker have 74 charges. All 124 charges relate to misrepresentations made about the composition of their alpaca or cashmere duvets.
The Commission alleges that Princess Wool misrepresented the alpaca content of their duvets. This was done through their; packaging, labelling, correspondence with customers and customer invoices. Princess Wool also made misrepresentations that their cashmere duvets contained cashmere when they did not.
Nangong has 10 charges, and Yun Qiang Hou and Caicai Hou face a further nine charges. These relate to misrepresentations that their duvets were made in New Zealand and contained alpaca wool. These claims were made on packaging and labelling, in oral representations and on invoices to customers.
The Commission alleges that Nangong’s duvets in fact contained no alpaca wool and were made in China.
As this matter is now before the court, the Commission is unable to comment further.
Background
The Commission has previously prosecuted eight companies and seven individuals for selling Asian tourists imported alpaca rugs as “Made in New Zealand”, and claiming duvets were predominantly alpaca or merino wool when they were not. They were convicted and fines reached a total of more than $1 million.
