$400,000 penalties for false labelling

The Federal Court has ordered Baiada Poultry Pty Ltd and Bartter Enterprises Pty Ltd, the processers and suppliers of Steggles branded chicken products to pay $400,000 in penalties.
It said that the companies engaged in false, misleading and deceptive conduct when it described on product packaging and in advertising that its meat chickens were ‘free to roam in large barns’.
The Court found that prior to day 42 of a growth cycle that may be up to 56 days the chickens were kept at stocking densities that did not allow them to move around at will.
The Australian Chicken Meat Federation Inc (ACMF), the peak industry body for Australia’s chicken meat industry, was also ordered to pay $20,000 in penalties.

http://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/court-orders-chicken-companies-to-pay-400000-for-%E2%80%98free-to-roam%E2%80%99-misleading-claims

Now this is out of the way, hopefully the ACCC and the courts will make a start of some of Australia's intensive egg producers who label their eggs as free range. The industry needs a legal definition of the term 'free range' - not the spin used by the corporate egg producers who control the Australian Egg Corporation.