Court says importer of Korea King non-stick pans did not deceive consumers
The Civil Court on Wednesday ruled in favour of the importer of Korea King brand non-stick pans, saying the ads boasting the pans’ qualities were not deceptive.
The verdict said that the importer and distributor of the pans, Wizard Solutions Co Ltd, had in no way deceived the 74 buyers, who were suing the company for 1.65 billion baht in damages.
The Foundation for Consumers, which filed a lawsuit against the company in 2017 on behalf of the 74 consumers, declared it will appeal the ruling.
In the verdict, the court said it believed Wizard Solutions’ statement that its Korea King pans had eight layers of coating, and the ads boasting this were not deceptive. It also said Wizard Solutions had not violated consumers’ rights or breached the contract by selling products of a lower quality than promised.
The company had insisted in its court testimony that the eight layers were there but were not visible to the naked eye.
Korea King pans are manufactured by Kheo Sung World Inc, a South Korean company that has been in the homewares business for more than 35 years.
Several years ago, Korea King became the talk of the town as a very expensive brand of non-stick pans after Wizard Solutions hired popular celebrity Wutthiphon “Woody” Taworntawat as a presenter.
In television ads, Woody claimed the pans could fry eggs without a drop of oil as they had eight layers of coating, especially “silver and gold marble” and nanosilver.
The price tag on the pans was 15,000 baht each, but Woody promised viewers they could get two for 3,900 baht if they ordered via the TV shopping channel.
Later, Kasetsart University science lecturer, Assoc Prof Dr Weerachai Phutdhawong, cut open a pan to find out if they actually had eight layers of coating as claimed.
Weerachai said lab tests showed the pans were just made of reinforced aluminium and steel, and only had polymer coating in two of five layers. He said there was no sign of marble in the composition.
In May 2017, the 74 dissatisfied buyers turned to the Foundation for Consumers for help.
The foundation tried to negotiate with Wizard Solutions, but when the company refused to respond, the foundation decided to file a civil lawsuit against the firm.
The foundation also claimed that the company tried to intimidate and gag the plaintiffs by suing one of the consumers, Kalayathat Tingwang, for defamation.
The defamation lawsuit was dismissed by the Criminal Court on September 14 this year.
