Fair Trading Stops Anti Halal Tactics

AN ANTI-ISLAMIC political party’s theory on how to cripple the multi-million dollar Halal industry has been debunked by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). RestoreAustralia sent out a media release encouraging people to buy a Halal certified product, take it home and return it for a refund.

CEO Mike Holt, who lives on the Sunshine Coast, said this was about using Australia’s consumer laws to hurt companies supporting Halal certification’s “bottom line”. “We realised the only way we could convince companies to stop pandering to the avaricious demands of 2% of Muslims in Australia was to hurt their bottom line,” Mr Holt said.

“We decided to make our consumer laws work for us instead, so started urging everyone to buy a Halal certified product, take it home, open it and return it for a refund.” But a Fair Trading spokeswoman said businesses were “not obligated to provide a refund”.

“If goods or services fail to meet a guarantee, the consumer is entitled to redress. If the failure to meet one of these guarantees is major, it is the consumer’s choice what that redress will be, such as full refund, replacement or repair,” she said. “If the failure is minor then it’s the trader’s choice as to what the redress will be. “However, if a consumer tries to return goods or services not covered by these guarantees, the trader has no legal obligation to assist them.”

Originally published on www.qt.com.au