Dress for Less has been fined $6,500 for selling clothes which did not meet the children's night clothes safety standard, after it was warned by the Commerce Commission.

DFL Apparel Limited, which trades as Dress for Less, pleaded guilty to three charges under the Fair Trading Act in the Wellington District Court today.

Samples from two of ranges of night clothes, the Sarah night gown and the Sarah pyjamas, were tested and failed the flammability test. It was illegal to sell them in New Zealand, but even worse, they were labelled "low fire danger".

In September last year a Commission investigator bought a Sarah night gown at the Dress for Less store in South City Mall, Christchurch. Six days later a pair of Sarah pyjamas were bought from the same shop.

Dress for Less' merchandise manager was told that the night clothes had failed the tests. He, and the company's buyer, showed a lack of awareness of the requirements of the safety standard but said the company would tighten its quality controls.

A month later a Commission investigator went to the same store and bought a Twin Images romper suit. It had no fire warning label at all.

The Commission spoke to the new buyer who had been appointed since the Sarah night clothes were bought and found that she too had a lack of awareness of the requirements of the safety standard.

"The standard exists to protect children from the dangers of wearing flammable night clothes around fires or heaters," Commission Chairman Dr Alan Bollard said.

"In two of these cases customers were led to believe that the night clothes were of the safest category available in New Zealand, when they should not have been on sale at all because they were a fire hazard.

"We talked to Dress for Less about the standard and then a month later they broke it again by selling night clothes with no labels at all.

"Businesses must be aware that it is their responsibility to ensure that their goods meet the safety standard. Goods which do not meet the standard can lead to serious injuries to children.

"While the penalties in this case were small compared to the $100,000 maximum under the Act, no company wants to face the fines, legal costs and bad publicity that come with a conviction."

The Sarah ranges had been imported from Fiji and the romper suit was imported from China.

Judge Gaskell imposed fines of $3,000 on the charge relating to the night gown, $2,500 for the pyjamas and $1,000 for the romper suit. Courts costs of $95 and $1,200 solicitor's costs were also imposed.

Media contact:Manager Fair Trading, Keith Manch

Phone work (04) 498 0908, home (04) 479 7105

Communications Officer, Vincent Cholewa

Phone work (04) 498 0920, home (04) 479 1432

Background

The law

The Commerce Commission enforces the Commerce Act and the Fair Trading Act.

Three product safety standards are enforced through the Fair Trading Act:

  • fire safety of children's night clothes
  • bicycles for road use
  • toys for children aged up to three years (to prevent choking)

Night clothes

This standard applies to any clothes which could be used as night clothes for children from when they start crawling at six months to 14 years. It has two categories of night clothes:

  • Low fire danger
    • : these may be loose fitting and must be correctly labelled
  • Flammable fabric
    • : these must be styled to fit close to the body to help prevent them getting into fires or heaters and must be correctly labelled
  • Loose fitting night clothes made of flammable fabric are prohibited.
    •

Education

The Commission publishes a wide range of free pamphlets aimed at business people, including one explaining the children's night clothes fire safety standard.

It has also works with trade organisations, conducts seminars and visits towns where it has no office to educate businesses about the law.