KEY POINTS:
A water cooler company has been fined for saying two of its brands of mineral and distilled water were "energised", when they were only purified tap water.
Big Blue Ltd was fined $25,000 in Auckland District Court yesterday for misleading customers and making false scientific claims about the products, Energised Distilled Water and Energised Mineral Water.
The Commerce Commission said a reverse-osmosis process was used to purify the water products, which were then claimed to be "energised" by vibration technology.
The commission said such vibration did not produce any measurable change to the water; nor did the company run any tests to prove the science.
Although the water was safe to drink, such claims of special health benefits misled consumers and undermined competitors, the commission said.
Big Blue had been trading since 1999, selling, supplying and processing water coolers and 15 litre units of bottled water for use in the coolers.
It has a processing and bottling plant at Mt Wellington in Auckland and a plant in Wellington.
In July 2005 Ecoworld NZ Ltd was fined $60,000 in Hamilton District Court for misleading people about the benefits of a water "treatment" system that did nothing to change the water it treated.
The court also ordered compensation of $68,000 to be paid to consumers who purchased its Grander Living Water Units for between $1500 and $12,000.
Judge Merilena Burnett said at the time the claims involved "inconsistencies, quackery and pseudo-science".
- NZPA
