Quilts seized for fooling buyers with impure wool and silk

Customs has seized HK$472,000 worth of quilts that were labelled as being filled with 100 per cent wool or silk but were found to contain other types of fibre.

Tests showed only 30 per cent of the filling in some of the silk quilts was silk, while 80 per cent of the stuffing in the wool quilts was wool, a senior customs officer said.

False labelling was in breach of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance and carried up to five years in jail and a HK$500,000 fine, Bobbie Liu Hing-yuen, deputy head of the Customs and Excise Department's consumer protection bureau, said.

"It is difficult to judge the quality of goods by appearance," he said. "Consumers should stick to the brands [they are used to]."

Liu believed other fibre was added to maximise profits. It was the first seizure of its kind in the city, he said.

The department acted after receiving a complaint from a buyer who suspected their "wool quilt" was not as labelled. Officers found it did not contain 100 per cent wool.