ACCC Takes Court Action on “Flushable” Wipes
Date: 29-Jun-2017
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has instituted proceedings in the Federal Court against Kimberly-Clark Australia and separately against Pental alleging that they each made false or misleading representations in relation to ‘flushable’ wipes they marketed and supplied in Australia.
The ACCC alleges that by labelling these products as “flushable”, consumers were led to believe that the products had similar characteristics to toilet paper, would break up or disintegrate in a timeframe and manner similar to toilet paper, and were suitable to be flushed down the toilet, when this was not the case. The ACCC alleges that the wipes were marketed as “flushable”, “completely flushable”, “able to be flushed in the toilet”, and able to “break down in sewerage system or septic tank”.
As service providers are well aware, these products do not disintegrate like toilet paper when flushed and many Australian water authorities still face significant problems when these products are flushed down the toilet as they contribute to blockages in household and municipal sewerage systems.
Read the full ACCC media release here.
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