Green fridge labelled a fraud
MELISSA SINGER
March 17, 2010

AN ELECTRONICS manufacturer with a history of making false environmental claims has been caught doctoring fridges to make them appear more energy efficient.

LG Electronics has agreed to compensate potentially thousands of consumers after two of its fridges – models L197NFS and P197WFS – were found to contain an illegal device that activates an energy-saving mode when it detects room conditions similar to those in a test laboratory.

The so-called circumvention device was discovered last month by the consumer advocacy group, Choice.

The device detects test conditions – typically 22 degrees – and activates the energy-saving mode, creating the impression of lower running costs and energy usage. The devices have been banned in Australia since 2007.

In reality the fridge, which has a 3.5 star energy rating, costs an extra $250 to run over 10 years and can severely affect food quality because the fridge can shut off when opened.

Choice’s tests found the energy consumption of the fridge was 876 kilowatt hours a year, compared to the advertised 738kWh.

Yesterday, the chief executive of Choice, Nick Stace, said the fridge was an extreme example of a company making false or misleading environmental claims, known as ”greenwashing”.

”This fridge is both a potential danger to your food, your wallet and the environment,” Mr Stace told the Choice National Consumer Congress at Luna Park.

LG Electronics has agreed to pay affected customers $331 to cover the unexpected increase in their power bills, but has not agreed to refund the purchase price of the fridge.

It is the third time LG Electronics has been caught making false claims about the environmental credentials of its products.

In 2008, it had to repay $3 million after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled it had inflated the energy-efficiency star rating of five models of air-conditioner.

The Herald understands the ACCC is investigating the latest matter. An ACCC deputy chairman, Peter Kell, would not comment on the investigation, but said consumer laws due to be introduced this year would give regulators greater powers to police claims.

He said the new legislation, the biggest overhaul of consumer law since the 1970s, would give the ACCC the power to force companies to substantiate environmental, health and other claims, as well as the power to enforce harsher penalties.

From April 1, a new star rating labelling system and energy rating calculation will be introduced for all fridges.

A spokeswoman for electrical retailer, The Good Guys, said it received a manufacturer’s recall notice from LG for the L197NFS fridge on February 26.

She said the company would offer customers a full refund and would pursue the matter with LG Electronics.

LG Electronics failed to return calls from the Herald yesterday.

… although Korea is economically developed, people hang out in Starbucks, buy Gucci underwear, and have crazy fast Internet access – and speaking about Korean women specifically, women go to school, are in the workforce in higher numbers, and don’t have overt and easily-condemned bans on appearance or dress – in the end, after marriage, or entering the work force, or wherever one wants to defined the transition from girl to adult – women’s options get severely limited. Yes, there’s no religious or otherwise specific ideological doctrine that dictates it – but the end result is that women still have nearly no political representation, no economic decision-making power in business or industry, and are still valued more for their appearance than intellect, as the sheer size of the sex industry or myriad personal observations seem to indicate. (I know – that was a crazy run-on sentence!)

… surely, somehow, in some way, the relatively large role that sex work still plays in the formal economy is related to (the low Gender Empowerment Index ranking of Korea at 63) It’s a really interesting correlation. Of course, this begs theorizing about all kinds of claims made as to its causal origins. And that’s where the real fun begins.

It’s a cash and class issue Mike and Gerry. As one of Kim Dae-jung’s ministers noted after yet another prostitution crackdown began: “These women are trash. Where will they go?”

First, let me mention that my grandmother, who now lives in Japan, used to be a “comfort woman,” and she says the Japanese army never coerced anybody into having sex with the soldiers.

Sure, a few rogue soldiers did indeed rape some of the women of the territories it occupied, but my grandmother says the Japanese army never collectively forced women into performing sexual acts.

What the Japanese army did was negotiate a deal with the owners of local brothels to have them bring a group of girls to the army barracks to perform sexual favors for the soldiers who were either lonely or in need of a morale boost.

The women were paid handsomely, and my grandmother says that any woman who felt any kind of aversion to sleeping with a Japanese soldier was not required to participate in any sexual junket, though that meant they were forfeiting any opportunity to earn money from the Japanese army.

Rhoda Hahn; Rock Star Psychiatrist