New Zealand Commerce Commission charges "free range" egg farmer (Media Release)

The Commerce Commission laid eight charges against the owner of a New Zealand free range egg farm trading under the name Gold Chick Poultry. The farm allegedly engaged in the conduct of arranging caged eggs to be packaged into cartons labelled “free range” and then on sold to consumers who paid a premium under the belief they were receiving free range eggs. The first set of charges involve obtaining by deception and exist under the Crimes Act 1961 (NZ), which makes the receipt of valuable consideration (in this case the premium price) gained by deceit an offence. In the alternative, the Commerce Commission alleges four charges of making misleading representations under the Fair Trading Act 1986. The matter is currently before the court, with no judgement as of 9 January 2019.