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DRUG GIANT RECKITT Benckiser has been slapped with a Aus$6 million (€4.2 million) fine for making misleading claims about its popular Nurofen Specific Pain brand in Australia.
The country’s consumer watchdog took action against the company in 2015, disputing Nurofen packaging claims that products in the range were formulated to treat different types of pain, when the active ingredient was identical.
The Federal Court last year ruled the British-based multinational engaged in deceptive conduct between 2011 and 2015 with the main ingredient, ibuprofen lysine, the same in all the products with none better at treating one type of pain than others.
It fined the group Aus$1.7 million (€1.2 million), but the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) appealed, claiming the fine was inadequate and did not serve as an effective deterrent.
The court has now revised the penalty to Aus$6 million “to ensure that Reckitt Benckiser and other ‘would-be wrongdoers’ think twice and decide not to act against the strong public interest”.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said a bigger fine was appropriate “given the longstanding and widespread nature of the conduct, and the substantial sales and profit that was made”.
The case revolved around Nurofen Back Pain, Nurofen Period Pain, Nurofen Migraine Pain and Nurofen Tension Headache products.
The original ruling ordered that they be removed from retail shelves and packets amended.
Nurofen denied it deliberately deceived consumers and said it had cooperated with the ACCC throughout.
In Australia, Reckitt Benckiser markets and supplies a range of consumer health and household brands, including Nurofen, Mortein, Clearasil, Finish, Airwick and Gaviscon.
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Sounds like a Ponzi scheme… Buy a share over the Internet in a place that could be a very artfully photographed Priory hall. Demand is high, the asset is way over valued. The initial investors cash out at the maximum and when the asset plummets in value and the shares become unsellable, the late investors loose everything. Also seems like it’s completely unregulated and open to abuse by those with inside information as to the value of the assets and property shares.
This sort of scam is nothing new, been several schemes shut down the UK selling people ‘shares’ in London green belt land and selling them on the fact that it could be reclassified for development and increase in value 100 fold.
Well, I guess we have learnt over the last few years that there is no shortage of gullible people out there when it comes to property, especially the Irish!
Crowdfunding? a bid like NAMA in ways.
Fianna Fail would love this…..
i doubt mr tully would appreciate seeing his house thats for sale for almost 450,000 being used at the top of this article
So more foreign direct investment ready to make our property crisis even worse. Good man Enda look the other way as usual.
Hmmmmm.
No bona fide purchaser for value without notice. What could possibly go wrong?
What has equity’s darling got to do with this; what am I missing?
Does this solve the homeless crisis in Ireland? Do we have the same population as the UK with ready cash? This business solution is well on the way by an Irish company by Irish people and they will only be investing in Social houses so we can solve our own problems thanks!
Some tips to reduce rents: (1) govt cancel new 4% prsi tax on rental income (2) govt cancel new 7% usc tax on rental income (3) treat landlords as a business meaning cancel the 25% reduction in mortgage interest against rental income for purpose of calculating tax liable income. All 3 plus property tax have lead in my case to an effective 26% increase in the cost of renting out property which ive not yet passed on. But many landlords in dublin have. Guys THE GOVT HAS TAXED RENT INTO OBLIVION and wonder why rents increase but oh yeah they dont tell Joe Soap this little secret. …..
A lot of women in UK. are using this type of “crowdfunding investment”, to have a property portfolio to eventually make themselves a good pension, time will tell if it works, to me there seems to be a lot of costs involved, for what you might get out of it. Will this start another property bubble? I think so I wouldn’t like to see this happening here again. I am very interested in what Louise has said, how would that work? Would there be rent controls, I heard a TD. talk about that, and said the leases would be 20 years, but these are families, only investors would tuff them out of their home! That won’t work., people need homes of their own,for life, to rent or buy,That is a real need in Irish people.
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