Furniture company fined after misleading Aberdeen customers
A national kitchen company was fined a total of £12,000 at Aberdeen Sheriff court today.
A national furniture company was fined a total of £12,000 at Aberdeen Sheriff court today after an investigation by the Trading Standards department found it had misled customers over prices.
Wren Living Ltd, which sells kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms from showrooms around the UK, admitted two charges of engaging in commercial practice which was misleading and deceiving for costumers.
The charges related to misleading point of sale display material false outlining savings which would be likely to deceive the average customer.
Wren Living Ltd, whose address was given in papers as The Nest, Falkland Way, Barton On Humber, was fined £6,000.
Sentencing the company to a £6,000 fine for each charge, Sheriff William Taylor said customers had been misled by the display point of sale advertisements, an act which is taken very seriously by both the government and the law.
The court heard the council’s Trading Standards department was made aware of claims of false savings in December 2013, and mounted an investigation.
Trading Standards officers visited the Aberdeen store at Boulevard Retail Park, Links Road, Aberdeen, over several months and observed the advertising.
Aberdeen City Council Trading Standards manager Graeme Paton said: “This is the second time in as many years Wren Living Ltd has pled guilty in Aberdeen to criminal breaches of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and it’s about time the company changed its business practices accordingly.
“Only through eight months of labour-intensive monitoring of the prices of these product lines were we able to prove beyond doubt that this was the case.
“We intend to carry out further price monitoring in the coming months to check that it has.”