Vodafone NZ Limited was sentenced in the Auckland District Court on 14 April 2022 to a fine of $2.25 million for 18 convictions on charges under s 11 of the Fair Trading Act 1986. This related to conduct that was found to have been liable to mislead a specific group of consumers in Wellington, Kapiti and Christchurch, where its “FibreX” branded service was offered, between 26 October 2016 and 28 March 2018. Nine charges related to Vodafone’s representations on its website about the availability of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services, to which Vodafone pleaded guilty on 16 November 2018. A further nine charges arose from Vodafone’s branding and advertising of its Hybrid Fibre Cable (HFC) broadband service as “FibreX”, of which Vodafone was found guilty in the Auckland District Court on 23 April 2021 following trial. The Commission has filed an appeal in the High Court against the sentence, and will argue that it is manifestly inadequate.
