Mosaic Brands continues its fall from grace: The former fashion staple, which was home to labels such as Noni B, Rivers, Katies, Rockmans and Millers, was just slapped with a $25.05 million penalty by Australia’s Federal Court.

The shopping centre mainstay was fined for taking payments for nearly three-quarters of a million orders and then failing to deliver them on time, or at all.

Mosaic found in brach of Australian Consumer Law

So how bad did it get for the brand’s customers?

An ACCC investigation found that Mosaic Brands breached Australian Consumer Law over a 6-month period when it failed to deliver 739,114 items across its nine brands within the delivery times specified on its websites.

The ACCC reports that more than half of customers’ orders didn’t even leave the warehouse for 30 days or more, and a third took 40 days-plus to arrive. Even worse, 4,213 were never delivered.

ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe described Mosaic Group’s behaviour as deceptive.

“Delivery times matter, and it is unacceptable to mislead consumers about this aspect of a sale. A large number of Australians, and close to a quarter of online goods ordered from Mosaic Brands, were affected by it.

“Our investigation revealed that more than half of the items in question were dispatched … 30 or more days after the order date, and about one-third were dispatched 40 or more days after the order date.”

“One person … experienced the dual disappointment of never receiving the goods they’d paid for and then having to wait six months for a refund.”

Lowe suggested the court’s finding should serve as a warning for the broader sector:

“All online retailers should be aware that excessive delivery delays after accepting payment can lead to penalties of this magnitude.”

The breaking of a brand

The delivery debacle was just the icing on a soggy cake. Mosaic’s downfall has been months, even years, in the making. The company went into voluntary administration in October 2024 before sliding into liquidation in July 2025.

A February 2025 notice revealed just how deep the hole was: over $318 million in total debt, including $22 million owed for staff entitlements. Secured creditors are likely to retrieve around $54 million, but unsecured creditors are staring at a whopping $242 million shortfall.

Administrators highlighted how Mosaic Brands became entangled in its own expansion between 2016 and 2019 by gobbling up  underperforming brands, often in overlapping markets, creating a high-cost, undifferentiated setup that literally competed with itself in shopping centres. It was a financially unsound strategy that left no runway, especially when the pandemic hit.

Hundreds of stores closed, thousands of staff lost jobs, and hundreds of suppliers and unsecured creditors were left watching from the sidelines with little to no return

The $25m pop in the courtroom

The Federal Court handed down a whopping $25.05 million penalty. That’s not just a slap on the wrist but a loud wake-up call for any business selling online. If you accept payment, you must deliver, and you can’t mislead with delivery promises.

The Court also found that Mosaic Brands breached the Australian Consumer Law when, in a 13-month period between 2021 and 2022, it stated on eight of 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.

Under the Australian Consumer Law, a consumer’s right to a refund for a faulty item does not have a set time limit: it applies for a “reasonable time”, which depends on factors such as the price and quality of the item.

Nor is it the first time the brand has fallen foul of the law. Mosaic Brands previously paid a total of $896,400 for infringement notices issued by the ACCC in May 2021 and September 2022, and gave a court enforceable undertaking in May 2021 in relation to misrepresentations on its websites, including about refunds for faulty goods.

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