Regulations setting mandatory safety standards for certain products are also enforced by the Commission under the Fair Trading Act. The purpose of these regulations is to prevent or reduce the risk of injury.
There are currently six product safety standard regulations. They are for:
Product safety standard regulations may cover:
- the nature of the product and its performance – for example, composition, contents, manufacture, processing, design, construction, finish or packaging;
- tests the product should go through during or after manufacture; and
- the form and content of any markings, warnings or instructions on the product.
It is a breach of the Act to fail to comply with the requirements of any product safety standard regulations. All businesses must ensure that they are aware of the requirements of any such regulations that are relevant to them.
The product safety standard regulations are available from selected bookshops or on the New Zealand Legislation website: www.legislation.govt.nz. Any relevant standards referred to in the Regulations can be purchased from Standards New Zealand by calling 0800 STANDARDS (0800 735 656) or via its website www.standards.co.nz.
The following is only a guideline, and does not include much of the detail that is contained in the related standards and regulations.