Jelly firm fined for trade act breaches

Photo / Herald on Sunday

An Auckland royal jelly retailer has been slapped with a fine after it misled consumers - the fourth Commerce Commission case of its type in the past year.

Sung Yub Paik admitted to misleading consumers about the country of origin and potency of the royal jelly - a bee secretion used to feed larvae and used in dietary supplements. Paik was fined $12,750 in the Auckland District Court after admitting two breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

Paik, as the managing director of Healthyway Products Corporation, that trades as Pacom, was responsible for the marketing and distribution of Healthyway's royal jelly capsules through its Auckland store.

He was also responsible for the design and wording of the labels.

The jelly was sourced from China, not New Zealand as the label indicated, and was made from powdered jelly despite being labelled as fresh produce.

The label also included the words "made in New Zealand" and a fern.

Commerce Commission enforcement manager Greg Allan said consumers had been deliberately misled by a business trying to exploit the premium royal jelly market.

Allan said the case had demonstrated that company directors would be held accountable for their actions.

"The commission's wider investigations into the royal jelly market in Auckland had uncovered a concerning lack of understanding of New Zealand consumer law by traders.

"We hope the actions we have taken over the last year have sent a strong message that this type of behaviour is not tolerated, and the consequences can be severe," he said.

In September, Sang Rae Kim, also known as Jonathan Ken, was fined $12,000 after pleading guilty to two breaches of the act.

The company he worked for - NZ Korea Health - was also fined $16,000 for misleading consumers about where the product was sourced and made.

The company used an image of a kiwi carrying the New Zealand flag with the words "Kiwi and quality from New Zealand" on the product.

The only local ingredients used were white beeswax to preserve the royal jelly, and water to make the capsule shell.