Four souvenir companies have been convicted and fined $601,900 for falsely labelling alpaca products as New Zealand-made.
Hyeon Company Ltd, Duvet 2000 Ltd, JW Wool Ltd, and Premium Alpaca New Zealand Ltd were sentenced in Rotorua District Court after admitting breaches of the Fair Trading Act.
The Commerce Commission found that the companies were selling visitors a range of imported alpaca goods, and saying that duvets were 100% alpaca or merino wool when they were not.
Commission chairman Mark Berry said the offending went as far as staff telling visitors that items came from snow alpaca's that are raised above the snow line of the South Island. No such animal exists.
