Fashion retailer Mosaic Brands has been fined $25 million for failing to deliver its products to customers within a reasonable time after accepting their payment.

Mosaic was the owner of brands such as Noni B, Rivers, Katies, Rockmans, Millers, Autograph, Beme, Crossroads and W Lane. The company went into liquidation last month after entering voluntary administration last October.

The federal court found that the company breached the consumer law after failing to deliver 739,114 items across its nine brands within the time specified on its websites. Among these products, 4213 were not delivered at all.

In doing so, Mosaic was found to have wrongfully accepted payment from consumers and engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. 

The nearly 740,000 goods made up almost one-quarter of the total online items ordered and dispatched by Mosaic Brands over a six-month period, according to the investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

More than half of the items were dispatched from Mosaic’s warehouses 30 or more days after the order date, and about one-third were dispatched 40 or more days after the order date.

“Delivery times matter and it is unacceptable to mislead consumers about this aspect of a sale,” said ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe. “A large number of Australians – and close to a quarter of online goods ordered from the Mosaic Group – were affected by it.”

In addition, Mosaic was found to have stated on its brands’ websites that consumers were only eligible for a refund for a faulty item if they sought the refund within six months of the purchase date. 

The practice, which took place between 2021 and 2022, was also deemed a breach of the consumer law, as consumers’ right to a refund for a faulty item does not have a set time limit.

Mosaic previously paid $896,400 for infringement notices issued by the ACCC in May 2021 and September 2022 in relation to misrepresentations on its websites, including about refunds for faulty goods.