Commission charges "free range" egg farmer

Media Release

Issued 30 August 2018

Commission charges "free range" egg farmer

The Commerce Commission has laid eight charges against Xue (Frank) Chen, the owner of a West Auckland free range egg farm which trades under the name Gold Chick Poultry Farm.

Mr Chen faces four charges of obtaining by deception under the Crimes Act 1961, and four charges, in the alternative, of making misleading representations under the Fair Trading Act 1986.

While Mr Chen produced and sold some free range eggs at his company’s farm, the Commission alleges that between September 2015 and October 2017, Mr Chen sold millions of caged eggs as free range, by arranging for caged eggs to be purchased and packaged into egg cartons labelled “free range”.

The Commission alleges that falsely labelled free range eggs were sold to retail and wholesale customers who believed that they were receiving free range eggs and were paying higher prices than for caged eggs.

As the matter is before the Court, the Commission will make no further comment at this time.

Background
Gold Chick Poultry Farm is the trading name for Black Water Trading Limited, of which Mr Chen is the sole shareholder and director.

Charges in the alternative
The Fair Trading Act charges are in the alternative, meaning that Mr Chen can be convicted on only one set of charges and not both, so will face a maximum of four convictions.

"Free range" and other similar claims
It is important traders can back up claims they make that consumers cannot themselves verify, such as "free range", "organic", or "Made in NZ".

The Commission has issued this guidance and video about false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims.

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