Kids' clothing company Goodwear pleads guilty over fire labels

Goodwear imports clothing from China and distributes it to shops throughout New Zealand. Photo / 123RF

Garment importer Goodwear has pleaded guilty to charges over fire-warning labels on kids' clothing, New Zealand's consumer watchdog says.

Goodwear imports clothing from China and distributes it to shops throughout New Zealand.

The Commerce Commission said this morning that the company had pleaded guilty to 16 charges.

The charges, all under the Fair Trading Act, related to missing or incorrect fire warnings and other labelling on 25 different items of children's clothing.

The firm will be sentenced in the Papakura District Court in November,

"Goodwear supplied or offered to supply several hundred units of ... non-compliant garments between 1 July 2016 and 30 October 2017," the commission said today.

The commission said that 11 types of clothing sold by Goodwear failed to comply with safety standards:

• Eight required fire warning labels but didn't have them.
• Three had fire warnings labels but the wording was incorrect.

Twenty-two clothing types failed to comply with consumer information standards.

The issues came to light after the regulator purchased 27 items of clothing that Goodwear supplied to two south Auckland retailers and sent them away for testing.

Goodwear is directed by Auckland man Jian Gao, who could not be reached for comment.