School experiment sinks Ribena in courtTuesday March 27, 4:08 PM
The global giant which makes Ribena pleaded guilty Tuesday to making misleading claims about the drink's health benefits after being exposed by two New Zealand teenage girls in a school science project.
GlaxoSmithKline's embarrassment stemmed from a test done by Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo at an Auckland high school three years ago which cast doubt on the company's claims about Ribena's vitamin C content.
Their findings were initially ignored by the firm but came to the attention of the Commerce Commission, a business watchdog, which took the company to court.
The multinational firm was fined 217,500 dollars (156,100 US) in the Auckland District Court Tuesday for breaching fair trading laws with claims about the vitamin C content of the popular blackcurrant drink.
It was also ordered to run advertisements detailing the true contents of the drink, which first became popular in Britain when fruit became scarce in World War II. Ribena is now sold in at least 20 countries worldwide.
Earlier the company admitted in court that its cartoned ready-to-drink Ribena had no detectable vitamin C, despite claims it contained seven milligrams per 100 millilitres.
The company also admitted it may have misled customers in advertisements saying blackcurrants had four times the vitamin C of oranges.
Commerce Commission lawyer Nicholas Flanagan told the court the product was marketed as being healthy when in fact it contained more sugar than Coca-Cola.
Devathasan and Suo -- then aged 14 -- conducted tests showing Ribena syrup contained lower levels of vitamin C than some other fruit juice-based drinks.
The girls said they were ignored when they approached the company.
"They didn't even really answer our questions. They just said it's the blackcurrants that have it, then they hung up," Suo said last week.
But a television consumer rights show later picked up the story and brought it to the attention of the Commerce Commission.
Devathasan and Suo, now 17, were in court Tuesday morning to see the case begin but missed the verdict because they had to return to school for a drama production.
Devathasan later said they were overwhelmed that their simple experiment had led to a court conviction.
"We're just blown away that anything we could have started could have blown up to something so huge," she told Radio New Zealand.
"Considering we were only 14 at the time, it's been a huge day."
Commerce Commission chairman Paula Rebstock paid tribute to the sleuthing efforts of the school girls.
"They're just fantastic. I think they are a true inspiration to everyone," she said.
A chastened GlaxoSmithKline said it has already changed its labelling and advertising to remove the misleading and incorrect information.
"The fact that some of our products had incorrect labelling is to us, unacceptable, and we sincerely regret any confusion caused to customers who feel they may have been misled," it said after the conviction.
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