If your business is buying or selling goods by weight, volume or length, you need to know about Australia’s trade-measurement laws.
You could be giving away profits by providing too much product to your customers, or risking fines and even prosecution by providing too little.
If your business is caught short-measuring its customers, you could be fined up to $170,000 per offence.
These laws also cover the format and accuracy of measurement labelling on prepackaged goods.
Under trade-measurement law, manufacturers, packers, importers and sellers of prepackaged goods must do the following:
- make sure packages are correctly labelled – with measurement statements and packer identification
- make sure packages contain the amount stated on the label
- have appropriate measuring instruments to perform compliance sampling
Details of these rules are set out in Australian trade-measurement laws: the National Measurement Act 1960 and the National Trade Measurement Regulations 2009.
It’s your responsibility
You can be held responsible for inaccurate measurement labels on any product you sell, regardless of whether the product was packed and labelled by you or a supplier.
You can be held responsible for inaccurate measurement labels, whether the product was packed and labelled by you or a supplier.
That’s why, if your business uses a measuring instrument such as a scale, dispenser or rule, it’s your responsibility to ensure that the instrument is used correctly and provides accurate measurement.
Checking your instruments
Australia’s National Measurement Institute (NMI) recommends that you have your trade-measuring instruments checked regularly by a technician licensed by NMI. You can get a list of these people from NMI’s Licensing Team on 1300 686 664 or [email protected].
The NMI is responsible for administering trade-measurement law (‘weights and measures’) across Australia. As a Commonwealth Government agency, NMI ensures that administration is consistent between States and Territories, reducing costs and red tape for companies operating nationally.
Trade-measurement officers
To make sure that businesses are complying with the law, NMI has more than 70 trade-measurement officers based around Australia, responding to complaints and enquiries from the public as well as conducting inspection programs.
Trade-measurement officers can visit a business at any reasonable time of day in response to a complaint or enquiry from a consumer, or as part of the compliance inspection program. The officer does not have to give notice of entry and businesses are obliged to assist inspectors and provide information.
Trade-measurement officers visited more than 4500 businesses, inspecting around 6000 instruments and more than 15,000 prepackaged items in the second half of 2013.
Trade-measurement officers will assist businesses to ensure they are operating within the law. However where persistent and/or significant breaches are discovered, fines and prosecutions will result.
Some recent examples:
- A food importer was fined $2550 for significant shortfalls across a number of prepackaged product lines. This included five samples of a nominally 500g processed seafood product which fell short of the label weight by 11% to 26%.
- A produce wholesaler was fined $4250 for significant shortfalls on prepackaged fruit lines, including 12 samples of nominally 10kg bags of grapes found to have shortfalls of between 11% and 26%.
- A publican was fined $850 after a whiskey dispenser was found to have deficiencies of up to 2.2mL in a nominal 15mL serve, over 3½ times the maximum permissible error.
The good news
The good news is enforcement action is the exception rather than the rule.
Over 90% of measuring instruments inspected last financial year were found to be accurate. Around half of the 9% found to be inaccurate were actually in favour of the customer.
We know that almost all Australian businesses comply with Australia’s trade-measurement requirements, as the great majority of complaints to NMI about possible breaches are found not to be justified.
Of 500 complaints Australia-wide received by NMI in the last six months, only 76 were found to be justified.
NMI sees these investigations as an opportunity to educate businesses and strengthen the national trade-measurement system.
If you have any questions on measurement, as a customer or a seller, our website provides comprehensive information on the following:
- using weighing or measuring instruments for trade transactions
- importing, packing or selling articles sold by measurement
- complaint and investigation processes relating to goods sold by measurement
To find out more about trade measurement and your business, visit measurement.gov.au/trademeasurement or call 1300 686 664 or email [email protected]
