Clorox fined $8.25m for misleading 'ocean plastic' claims on GLAD products
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The news: The Federal Court has ordered household products provider Clorox Australia to pay a $8.25 million penalty for making false or misleading representations to consumers that certain GLAD kitchen and garbage bags were partly made of recycled "ocean plastic".
The numbers: Following court action by ACCC, Clorox admitted that it breached Australian consumer law by stating on the packaging for its "GLAD to be GREEN" kitchen tidy bags and garbage bags that the products were made of at least 50% recycled plastic waste collected from the ocean or sea.
In reality, the products were made from around 50% plastic waste that had been collected from communities in Indonesia with no formal waste management systems, situated up to 50 kilometres from a shoreline, and otherwise from non-recycled plastic, processing aid and dye.
The ACCC said more than 2.2 million products were supplied in this packaging between June 2021 and July 2023.
The context: The court observed that "there is a particular societal harm that arises when conduct undermines consumers’ confidence in environmental claims", adding that the "development of products that minimise adverse environmental impacts is beneficial" but "[e]nvironmental claims are useful for consumers only if they are accurate."
Clorox was also ordered to set up an Australian consumer law compliance program, publish a corrective notice on its website, and pay part of the ACCC’s legal costs, among other orders.
Clorox discontinued the products in July 2023, after it became aware the ACCC had started investigating but before the ACCC commenced these proceedings.
What they said: "Claims about environmental benefits matter to many consumers and may impact their purchasing behaviour. When those claims are false or misleading, this is a serious breach of trust, as well as the Australian consumer law," said ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
"This is also a significant matter because consumers have limited or no ability to independently verify the accuracy of the claims made on packaging and it also disadvantages competitors who are accurately communicating their environmental credentials."
The source: ACCC
