Birubi Art hit with $2.3 million penalty for selling fake Aboriginal art
Updated
A company has been handed a $2.3 million fine by the Federal Court for selling thousands of pieces of fake Aboriginal art.
The court found Birubi Art breached Australian consumer law and misled customers by promoting its products as genuine Aboriginal art, when in fact they were painted in Indonesia.
The company sold more than 18,000 boomerangs, bullroarers, digeridoos and message stones over 2.5 years.
In a landmark ruling, Justice Melissa Perry imposed a $2.3 million penalty, saying the fine aimed to deter other operators from undercutting the genuine Aboriginal art industry.
Gabrielle Sullivan from the Indigenous Art Code said the penalty would bring “hope” and “some deterrence,” but it did not mean better protection for artists.
“I don’t want to downplay it, but I don’t think we should be confident it will address the real issues: there is still no protection around Indigenous culture and intellectual property,” she said.
She said this judgement was a win for consumers, who were less likely to be misled in the sale of Indigenous art.
“This is about Birubi being misleading and deceptive on their packaging and labelling and presentation of products, it wasn’t about fake art or unfair licensing agreements,” Ms Sullivan said.
“We’d like to see some amendment to the Australian Consumer Law so that there’s a prohibition on selling fake art or producing products under unfair licensing arrangements, because we see that as a big issue.”
Justice Perry said there was “powerful” evidence Birubi’s conduct caused great social, economic and cultural harm to Indigenous communities and artists.
In her judgement, she said while it was unlikely the company would ever pay such a fine, it was in the interest of general deterrence that such a hefty penalty be handed down.
“The duration of the conduct, the number of outlets across the country to which the products were supplied, and the number of products sold, it is clear that the objective seriousness of the conduct is considerable,” she said in her judgement.
“There was is a need for robust penalties to strongly discourage conduct of this kind.”
Company unlikely to pay fine
Birubi Art is now in liquidation and the ABC understands it is unable to pay the fine.
Last year, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) commissioner Sarah Court spoke about the impact fake Aboriginal art had on the industry.
“It has an impact on the consumers who are not getting what they paid for, but also it has a significant competition impact as well because there are other people who are producing authentic art being impacted negatively by the whole suggestion of the lack of authenticity in this industry generally,” she said.
Topics:
indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander,
First posted
from Viral News Updates https://ift.tt/2J5hSGm
Comments
Post a Comment