Shop-from-home service AdMart is facing legal action over sticky labels on its cans of Coca-Cola - the retailer's third embarrassment in a week. Company chiefs could find themselves punished for breaching labelling laws over use-by dates stuck on hundreds of thousands of cans. The complaint, by the Health Department, is understood to concern the fact that Coke sold by AdMart has Malaysian-language labels on the cans. Stickers in Chinese have been put on top for sale to the Hong Kong market, but they are believed to be legally insufficient. A department source said the case was destined for the courts, although it could be months until the matter was heard. He said the maximum penalty was a $50,000 fine and six months' jail. But AdMart president Wilson Chu Bun said yesterday: 'It's not a problem,' adding that the department had not ordered AdMart to stop selling the Coke and the company was working on ways to improve its labelling. 'They've not come out and charged us, and things like this rarely warrant a jail term,' Mr Chu said. 'This is Coca-Cola we're talking about, not cocaine.' The blow is AdMart's third this week and comes on top of its chaotic entry to the market in June, when it was inundated with orders and could not keep up. On Monday, Customs officers seized hundreds of bottles of fake Bordeaux wine from company warehouses. The next day, it emerged that AdMart was suspected of selling counterfeit Hennessy XO cognac. Mr Chu said the firm would not be beaten by the setbacks. 'I don't think we've done anything wrong. We've made mistakes, for sure, but not intentionally. And we're changing our internal quality control and buying. We're going to be here for good,' he said. AdMart said it accepted that the Hennessy XO cognac it sold over the Mid-Autumn Festival was counterfeit and is considering legal action against its supplier, Wan Chai-based Leung Yick.
