Vanessa Horne: Commerce Commission General Manager of Competition, Fair Trading and Credit on Bed, Bath & Beyond being fined for selling unsafe products

Bed, Bath & Beyond has been fined $230,000 for selling more than 27,000 products without proper labelling or instructions.

The company sold 3700 sets of children's pyjamas without fire-hazard labels - and more than 23,000 hot water bottles without safe usage instructions. 

The General Manager accepts responsibility, but notes no products were found to have physical faults. 

The Commerce Commission's Vanessa Horne says it takes safety issues seriously - especially on products for children.

"There's a label requirement, mainly for parents, so that they know that that particular pair of pyjamas might be more flammable than another."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bryan bread Bed Batham Beyond Being Naughty fined two hundred
and thirty thousand dollars for selling children's pajamas and hot
water bottles that didn't meet safety requirements. So this is
the story. The non compliant pajamas and hot water bottles
were sold between March and October of twenty twenty three.
Here is the really interesting bit, the reasons these products

(00:21):
were so dangerous. The pajamas didn't have fire hazard information
printed on them gasp, and the hot water bottles didn't
include any instructions about safe usage and storage. The Comments
Commission took this case to court. Vanessa Horn is the
commission General manager of Competition, Fair Trading and Credit, and
she's with me this evening. Good evening, Hi, Ryan, Is

(00:45):
this serious?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yeah? It is. So. You know, parliaments decided there were
a few products safety standards on some consumer products that
particularly those ones that have a detrimental impact for children,
and nightwear is one of those things, and so we
do take it very seriously.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
What is so the pajamas didn't have a fire hazard
label printed on them? Are they a fire hazard? They particularly?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yes? Right? So yeah, your bag on. So so there's
a NightWare standard that particularly focuses on the pajamas that
kids wear, and there's a label requirement, mainly for parents,
so that they know that that particular pair of pajamas
might be more flammable than another. The reason why that's

(01:34):
really important is that we still have quite a lot
of open fireplaces in New Zealand and we want to
make sure that those kids who have got more flammable pajamas,
you know, they know not to go next to the
fireplace in winter time.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Right, okay, And what about the other issue the hot
water bottles. No instructions about safe usage and storage. I mean,
is that not obvious? Fill it with hot water, you know,
be careful, it's hot water.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, it's really interesting. And bed Bath and Beyond sold
twenty three thousand of these and that in that period
a couple of winters ago. So again, the hot water
bottle standard basically tries to remind people to check their
hot water bottle at the start of each winter, sort
of like what we all do with electric blankets as well,

(02:22):
to make sure that that hot water bottle is still
safe to use. We often here at the start of winter,
particularly old people who have you know, might use their
hot water bottle from the previous year or maybe even
from five years ago, and it's warped and that the
hot water goes straight through it and they get burnt.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Venanza, thank you for that. The Commerce Commission. This is
Vanessa Horn. She took the case. Commerce Commission, General Manager
of Competition, Fair Trading and Credit took the case against
bed Bath and Beyond. They are now bad Bath and
Beyond and they had been fined two hundred and thirty
thousand dollars. That was a really heartwarming mom For more,
Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to News Talks at

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