THE FAIR TRADING ACT

Rights of Consumers and Responsibilities of Producers

1. What is the Fair Trading Act? 
The Fair Trading Act prevents consumers from unfair and misleading trade practises, fake information in advertisements (for example, lying about where it comes from) and deceptive conduct being carried out by businesses. In other words it protects New Zealand consumers from being tricked or mislead by businesses when they post unreliable, deceptive, or false information. 

2. What is the commerce commission's goal?
The commerce commission's role is to put laws in place surrounding fair trading between businesses and consumers. Their aim is to keep New Zealand consumers satisfied when businesses are confident and markets are reliable and working well. 

3. Who besides the commission are responsible for the act and can take their own legal action?
The commerce commission call themselves a self-enforcing act, which means consumers have the rights to take legal action and demand that the business fixes the situation.

4. Who are the two types of groups the act applies to?
The act applies to businesses and consumers.  

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Understanding your compliance obligations

1. What do the acts apply to?

The Fair Trading Act applies to anyone in the trade industry, from small businesses to large businesses. All consumers are protected by the Fair Trading Act when buying from any business.

2. Whose shoes must the business put themselves into?

They should put themselves in the consumer's shoes to ensure that they are being reliable and fair. 

3. What is the commission empowered to do?

Enforce laws protecting customers from being mislead, tricked, deceived by false or unreliable information put out by producers. 

Reporting a business

1. If you need to report a business, what can you do?

You can make a complaint to the commerce commission by calling 800 943 600 or email contact@comcom.govt.nz. From there, the commission will investigate the business. 

Why is it good to know your rights?

It is important to know your rights as a consumer because you may end up having to pay more than intended for your purchase, or be stuck with a faulty product or unfair contract. When producers set a certain price for a product they may attempt to hide hidden surcharges that the consumer is unaware of. The consumer will then end up paying more than intended because of this unreliable information. Furthermore, when online shopping it is possible for a retailer to sell you a faulty product without any information regarding it. Or hide certain information inside contracts (small text etc.) As a consumer it is important to know your rights to fix the situation if these things ever happen to you, or prevent it from occurring in the first place. For example, I buy a fridge from Fisher and Paykel. But when I receive it, the product is faulty. If a customer does not know their rights they will not know how, or if, they're allowed to get their money back or get the fridge replaced by the retailers. Knowing your rights, to be able to take legal action in these cases, can prevent the producer from getting away with it illegally and ripping you off. This is a much better outcome than having to pay more than intended, have a faulty product or unfair contract.