Catch of the Day dodges privacy penalties over hack attack; Patties Foods slashes profit forecast after $1.5 million frozen berries recall: Midday Roundup

Online retailer Catch of the Day and Aussie Travel Cover have both managed to escape penalties for large-scale data breaches, according to ITNews.

In July 2014, Catch of the Day, which is owned by Australian e-commerce giant The Catch Group, wrote to its customers advising them their passwords and credit card details had been stolen three years after the data breach took place.

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has concluded an investigation into the incident and expressed concern about the size of the breach, the possible compromise of financial information and delays.

However, because of actions Catch of the Day has taken in response to the incident, including commissioning a third party expert to investigate the issue and improving its privacy governance arrangements, the OIAC has said it won’t take further action over the matter.

The OIAC also will not further investigate Aussie Travel Cover on account of its promptness of its response to an attack on its information systems.

Both investigations are now closed but could be reopened as a result of complaints from affected customers.

Patties Foods slashes profit forecast after $1.5 million frozen berries recall

The frozen berries health scare from earlier this year has cost Patties Foods $1.5 million in forgone earnings, the company has revealed to shareholders.

While Patties Foods is still waiting to complete a review of the full financial impact of the recall of its frozen berry products in February, it has now forecast a 10% drop in full-year profits for this financial year.

The frozen food manufacturer now expects its net profit after tax to come in at $15 million for the 2015 financial year, which compares to $16.7 million in 2014.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, Patties Foods chief executive and managing director Steven Chaur said the recall has had a “significant” impact on the company’s financial performance.

Patties Food said in the same statement it has strengthened the testing procedures for its Nanna’s and Creative Gourmet berry products, which it says are now “amongst the most rigorously microbiologically tested berries now sold in the Australian market”.

Shares down on open

Aussie shares have traded lower this morning, as investors weighed up the implications of rising bond yields and a stronger dollar.

Ric Spooner, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said in a statement investors were faced with an interesting set of macro developments this morning.

“Last night’s news of better than expected inflation in Europe, together with the latest iteration of hopes for a settlement of the Greek debt crisis have reignited selling in world bond markets. Equity markets and central banks will be hoping the increase in bond yields remains relatively limited at this stage,” Spooner said.

“With stock market valuations at relatively high levels, investors would be best served by a gradual increase in bond yields in line with improvements in economic growth rather than a sharp pre-emptive rally towards long term historical averages in bond yields.

“Stronger Eurozone inflation and relief that risks of deflation are receding led to a rally in the Euro last night and general selling of the US dollar. This added fuel to yesterday’s RBA inspired rally in the Aussie dollar. This may be a negative for those local stocks with significant international investments in today’s trading.”

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was down 52.4 points to 5583.6 points at 12.14pm AEST. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones closed 28.43 points lower, down 0.16% to 18011.9 points.