Hundreds of complaints that deliveries were not made as promised by a number of popular retail websites have prompted the consumer watchdog to take legal action.
Mosaic Brands, which owns nine fashion labels including Noni B, Rivers, Katies and Rockmans, is facing possible penalties and an extensive legal bill after being hit with a Federal Court lawsuit on Monday.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says that from September 2021 to March 2022 - as the first Omicron wave surged across the nation - the retailer promised to deliver over 740,000 products to customers within 14 days.
It allegedly failed to do so.
“The ACCC has received hundreds of complaints about Mosaic Brands in relation to delivery delays," Commissioner Liza Carver said.
Mosaic has produced about 59,000 complaint tickets regarding delivery delays to the consumer watchdog, according to court documents.
Delivery delays were "excessive and lengthy", the consumer watchdog claims, with 26 per cent of items dispatched after 20 days or more and in some cases over 40 days after a product was purchased.
“Excessively late deliveries can be incredibly frustrating and inconvenient for consumers, especially if they decided to buy goods for a special occasion, such as Christmas, based on the advertised delivery times which were not met,” Ms Carver said.
The firm wrongly accepted payment for goods that were not delivered within a reasonable time or, in some cases, at all, the ACCC said.
Mosaic has also been accused of misleading consumers between September 2021 and October 2022 through a claimed six-month time limit to get a refund if an item was faulty.
“If you buy a product or service and discover it is faulty, not of acceptable quality or does not match its description, you are entitled to a free repair and may also be entitled to a refund or replacement," Ms Carver said.
"These legal rights ... don’t have a specific expiry date."
As well as penalties and legal costs, the ACCC is seeking injunctions barring Mosaic from certain conduct and orders forcing the firm to implement a consumer law compliance program.
A spokesperson from Mosaic criticised the ACCC's lawsuit.
“Mosaic Brands believes the ACCC claim is flawed, and we will be vigorously defending it in court," he said.
For the past two years, the retailer had exceeded Australia Post's government-mandated fulfilment rates, he added.
These fulfilment rates relate to the taking, processing, packaging and sending out of deliveries.
This is not the first time Mosaic has faced court, with the company fined $266,400 in September 2022.
In that case, the Federal Court found the firm had falsely claimed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that one of its face masks was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and European Union authorities.
The company also misleadingly stated one of its hot water bottles was "ACCC approved" when the consumer watchdog has never endorsed or approved products.
In May 2021, Mosaic paid $630,000 in penalties after admitting it breached consumer law when promoting its pandemic-related "Health Essential Products".
Hand sanitiser had the incorrect amount of alcohol content listed, while its face masks included false claims they were approved by the FDA, EU and the World Health Organisation.
Mosaic generated almost $620 million in revenue in the 2022 financial year and has more than 800 stores across Australia.
