Consumer watchdog group The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had taken Bindert (Ben) Kloosterman and Xin Fan (Lucy) Shi to court alleging the pair had committed offences against the Trade Practices Act after they set up designerbrandoutlet.com
The group alleged the couple had made representations that genuine designer label women's clothing was available for sale when in some cases no items were supplied while in others the clothing was found to be counterfeit.
The couple were ordered by the judge, Justice Flick, to pay the ACCC's legal costs. A further decision on whether the ACCC can bring representative action for compensation on behalf of mislead consumers has been adjourned until March 2.