The Federal Court has found Coles’ ‘Freshly Baked’ and ‘Baked Today’ marketing claims were false, misleading and deceptive.
The proceedings were brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over bread products that were partially baked and frozen off site by a supplier.
These were promoted at Coles’ supermarket in-house bakeries as ‘Baked Today, Sold Today’ and in some cases ‘Freshly Baked In-Store’.
The Court found that the “Baked Today, Sold Today”, “Freshly Baked” and “Baked Fresh” claims made by Coles amounted to a misleading representation that the par baked bread products had been baked on the day of sale or baked in a fresh process using fresh not frozen product.
In his judgement, Chief Justice Allsop said: “It is not the place of the court to provide an advice …as to how Coles might sell bread that has been par-baked from frozen product…A start would, however, be to make it tolerably clear to the public that the recent baking was the completion of a baking process that had taken place sometime before, off site, and that “freshly baked” actually meant the completion of the baking process of frozen product prepared and frozen off site by suppliers.”
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said: “These claims also placed independently-owned and franchised bakeries that freshly bake bread from scratch each day at a competitive disadvantage.
“Today’s decision confirms that Coles misled consumers about the baking of these bread products. Consumers should be able to rely on the accuracy of credence claims made by businesses like Coles to promote their products, especially where those claims are used to compete with smaller businesses which are genuinely offering a differentiated product.”
Coles faces fines of up to $1.1 million per breach.
