An Auckland farmer is facing eight charges for falsely labeling eggs as “free range”.
Xue (Frank) Chen, owner of Gold Chick Poultry Farm, faces four charges of obtaining by deception under the Crimes Act 1961, and four charges, in the alternative, of making misleading representations under the Fair Trading Act 1986.
The Commerce Commission alleges that Mr Chen sold millions of caged eggs as free range between September 2015 and October 2017. He is suspected of arranging for caged eggs to be purchased and packaged into egg cartons labelled as “free range”.
The falsely labelled eggs were sold to retail and wholesale customers who were under the belief that they were receiving free range eggs and were paying more as a result. The Commission will make no further comment at this time as the matter is before the courts.
