Maker of Kleenex hit with hefty fine over false Aust-made claim

The maker of Kleenex has come under fire again, this time for misleading consumers by falsely representing that items sold were made in Australia. Kimberly-Clark Australia has now been ordered to pay $200,000 following an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The Federal Court found that the company falsely represented that its Kleenex Cottonelle ‘flushable cleansing cloths’ were made in Australia, when they were actually made in Germany, South Korea or the UK.

According to the ACCC, the false representations were made on its website between October 28, 2015, and February 24, 2016, while the products’ packaging correctly stated the products were imported.

A spokesperson for Kimberly-Clark has since said that the website error was unintentional and not a marketing ploy. “All Kleenex Flushable Cleansing Cloths packaging and advertising have always accurately stated where the product is made,” the spokesperson said, 9News reports.

“The Made in Australia website logo was intended only for our Kleenex toilet paper products, which are made in Millicent, South Australia. This was an unintentional web publishing error displayed in a static footer of the Kleenex Cottonelle brand website between October 2015 and February 2016, and it was removed as soon as it was brought to our attention.”

Following the court’s decision, ACCC chair Rod Sims said, “We know many Australian consumers place a premium on goods that are Australian made. This penalty should remind businesses of their responsibilities to ensure that representations on their website or packaging about the country of origin are accurate, so that consumers can make informed purchasing decisions.”

In a similar case in mid-2019, the Federal Court dismissed the ACCC’s case about whether the Kleenex cleansing wipes were suitable to be flushed down the toilet, finding that Kimberly-Clark had not made false and misleading claims about the flush-ability of the wipes.

At the time, the ACCC argued that by labelling the range, which has since been discontinued, as flushable, Kimberly-Clark had misled consumers about the suitability of its wipes to be flushed down the toilet, adding the wipes did not disintegrate like toilet paper when flushed and contributed to drain blockages. The court, however, said there was no sufficient evidence to show that Kimberly-Clark’s Kleenex Cottonelle wipes had caused blockages in sewerage systems across the country.