One Connect Director fined $4,000 for misleading flight offer
Published25 Nov 2003
Issued 25 November 2003
Company Director, Andrew Selwyn Randle Hanna, was fined $4,000 in the Auckland District Court yesterday having pleaded guilty to breaching the Fair Trading Act with respect to a free offer deal. It was Hanna's second prosecution by the Commerce Commission under the Fair Trading Act.
The Commission prosecuted Hanna following an investigation into One Connect Limited, a business that represented that it produced and placed television and radio advertising on television and/or radio networks. The case against Michael Helsby Knight, who also worked at One Connect, has been adjourned to August 2004.
Hanna pleaded guilty to s 17 of the Fair Trading Act which prohibits the offer of gifts, prizes or other free items with the intention of not providing them or of not providing them as offered.
One Connect offered airfare vouchers to businesses who had agreed to the production and placement of television or radio advertising. The vouchers represented that they were valid to redeem $500 on Air New Zealand international flights.
Commission Acting Chair Paula Rebstock said that the Commission's investigation had revealed that there was no agreement by Air New Zealand to honour such a voucher.
"According to a number of businesses who took up One Connect's offer, the airfare voucher had a significant influence on their decision-making process. Moreover, the businesses targeted were small and inexperienced in conducting television advertising campaigns."
"The Fair Trading Act extends protections to businesses as well as consumers, Ms Rebstock added, "and the Commission will continue to take action against people such as Andrew Hanna who deliberately set out to deceive others."
