An Australian skincare company has admitted that its claims about the sun protection factor in two of its sunscreens were false.

Ego Pharmaceuticals has pleaded guilty to two charges under the Fair Trading Act (FTA), for making unsubstantiated claims on two sunscreens.

The Commerce Commission had opened an investigation following a Consumer NZ complaint about Ego Sunsense Sensitive Invisible SPF50+ and Ego Sunsense Ultra SPF50+, which said that these products failed to provide the very high protection claimed.

Commerce Commission general manager of Fair Trading, Vanessa Horne, said Ego accepted that between February 2019 and June 2020 it did not have a reasonable basis to make the SPF claims made on the sunscreen products.

"We opened an investigation into Ego following Consumer NZ's testing in 2019 and a subsequent complaint filed with the Commission.

"In 2019 and 2020 Ego represented that both products provided 'very high' protection for consumers and were 'SPF50+' in accordance with an Australian and New Zealand Standard for sunscreen products.

"While it had reasonable grounds for those claims when the products were first released in New Zealand, the accumulation of test results between 2017 and 2019 meant that from February 2019 Ego ceased to have reasonable grounds to make those claims."

Ego Sunsense Sensitive Invisible SPF 50+ was issued a withdrawal notice by Ego Pharmaceuticals in 2020. Photo / Life Pharmacy

Ego Sunsense Ultra SPF 50+ was issued a withdrawal notice by its company in 2020. Photo / Chemist Warehouse

The Fair Trading Act requires businesses to make sure that they have a proper basis for the claims they make about their products when they make those claims - they must be able to back them up.

The two Ego products have not been distributed in the New Zealand market since December 2019, Horne said.

Ego issued a withdrawal notice for the products in 2020.

In 2018 and 2019, Consumer NZ's independent testing found both products from the skincare company only provided moderate protection.

Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy said at the time of testing, Ego Pharmaceuticals provided the organisation with test results showing the sunscreens met their claimed SPF.

"Both certificates were from AMA Laboratories – a sunscreen-testing facility in the US.

"In 2021, the owner of AMA admitted defrauding customers and causing sunscreens to be marketed on the basis of false lab reports.

"The case is now before the courts and sentencing is scheduled for 26 October 2022."

Duffy said the agency was pleased with the outcome.

"For many years, companies sent us test reports from AMA Labs when our tests found they weren't up to standard."

On September 8, the Sunscreen (Product Safety Standard) Act would become law.

Under the law, sunscreens would be regulated under the Fair Trading Act (FTA) and it would be mandatory for products to meet the Australian and New Zealand sunscreen standard. Companies that breach the requirements could face fines of up to $600,000.

Duffy said while this was good news for the public, the organisation "believes regulating sunscreens under the FTA should only be an interim measure".

Consumer NZ wants sunscreens regulated as a therapeutic product, not a cosmetic, which would bring New Zealand in line with Australia, he said.

"Complying with the standard also isn't enough.

"Sunscreens need to be tested regularly to ensure different batches provide the claimed protection, which the standard doesn't require.

"Consumer NZ has been testing sunscreens for many years and finds companies are sometimes relying on tests that are several years old to support their label claims."

Every year, Consumer NZ independently tests sunscreens, he said.

"In our latest round of testing, only eight of the 21 tested sunscreens met their SPF label claim and the requirements for broad-spectrum protection."