A Bed, Bath and Beyond store. Photo: Google Maps
A consumer rights organisation has described the response of a retailer caught selling pyjamas and hot water bottles without danger warnings as disappointing.
Bed, Bath and Beyond was fined $230,000 for selling 27,374 products that did not include safety information in the locations required by the law between March and October 2023.
This included at least 3753 children's pyjama sets that did not have the fire hazard information in the required visible spot or in the online descriptions, and 23,801 hot water bottles.
In a statement, Bed, Bath and Beyond general manager Guy Hunt said the firm acknowledged the prosecution and fine regarding product safety information "on a small number of our product lines in 2023".
He called the sales "isolated oversights" and none of the products themselves were defective, aside from the missing labels.
Consumer NZ chief executive said the labels were "a really crucial part of our consumer protection framework".
"I was quite disappointed to read Bed, Bath and Beyond's statement which said that these were mere oversights on a small number of products," he told Morning Report on Tuesday.
"We're talking about the biggest number of products that have ever been let onto the market that the Commerce Commission has ever seen - so something like 27,000 products that were non-compliant were sold here by Bed, Bath and Beyond.
"This is more than just an oversight."
He said labels like those found on flammable pyjamas and hot water bottles were important.
"If you think about how these types of laws come about, there are products that have caused injury, and they need to be pretty serious injuries for Parliament to get to the point where it goes, 'Actually, we need to pass some regulations that warn people about the dangers of these products.'
"What we're talking about here is children's nightwear, and you know, there's been some horrific historic stories of children who have been seriously burnt or even killed when nightwear they've been wearing has caught fire.
"And we're also talking about hot water bottles here that obviously you're putting boiling water into, and if you're not familiar with how to use them safely, could really cause you serious injury."
He said sometimes manufacturers only created products "that are compliant with their biggest market, but they might not necessarily meet the requirements of New Zealand", and it was important for importers "actually make sure that these products are compliant with New Zealand specific regulations".
Vanessa Horne, general manager of competition, fair trading and credit at the Commerce Commission - which laid the charges - called it "one of the biggest breaches… that we've found in New Zealand over the past few years".
"I think most of these products came from, Asia, China. Bed Bath and Beyond usually have pretty good compliance practices - so they check things before they bring things into the country, they spend time with new suppliers.
"Unfortunately, these products just fell through the normal compliance systems."
She said in this case, the breaches were discovered as part of a "proactive inspection".
"Our product safety team are regularly out there checking shops, particularly for things like children's toys, hot water bottles and nightwear. And we found these non-compliant goods in just one of those regular inspections."
Bed, Bath and Beyond worked with the Commerce Commission and recalled the products in question as soon as the warnings were found to be inadequate.
"We are committed to taking proactive steps to seek to ensure such oversights do not happen again, and have already proactively undertaken a review of our processes and enhanced our compliance steps for all labelling requirements," Hunt said.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
