On 29 November 2023, the Auckland High Court allowed the Commission’s appeal against the original fine imposed on NZME Advisory Limited (NZME) and increased it to an end sentence of $195,000. NZME was originally sentenced in the Auckland District Court to a fine of $87,750 having pleaded guilty to a representative charge under sections 31(5) and 40(1) of the Fair Trading Act 1986. NZME accepted that it supplied 213 unsafe magnet puzzle sets, a product that was prohibited and was supplied in contravention of an unsafe goods notice. The magnets could be easily ingested and, in 2021, an 11-year-old child ingested two magnetic balls from one of the magnet sets and required emergency life-saving surgery to remove them.
