The Fair Trading Act A Guide for Advertisers and Traders
Published01 May 1997
The Commerce Commission has published what is the only detailed plain English guide to the Fair Trading Act intended specifically for people running their own businesses, managers and anyone else responsible for day-to-day business decisions.
Commission Fair Trading Manager Rachel Leamy said the Commission's book, the Fair Trading Act - A Guide for Advertisers and Traders, fills an important gap in information available to business people.
"Legal publishers produce books that are aimed at lawyers, and various organisations produce small pamphlets about the Act," Ms Leamy said. "But this is the only book aimed at people running small businesses, or managing branches or sections of bigger businesses - and its free.
"We have deliberately put in a little humour and have tried to focus on what business people want."
The book does not set out the Act and explain it section by section.
Instead, it looks at everyday business practices or issues - like, for example, availability of goods advertised, fine print, special offers, and packaging - explains how the Act applies to them and gives examples of problems the Commission has encountered.
Each part is short, to the point and written in plain English.
"If someone wants to promote their business by using a particular style of promotion or advertising, then they should to spend a few minutes checking the relevant part of the book. They will not have to wade through sections of the Act and understand legal jargon," Ms Leamy said.
"Our objective is to have more businesses comply with the Act. Most business people do not want to break the law, but many do not know it very well. This book will help them understand the law by looking at it from their own everyday point of view.
"Put simply, the Fair Trading Act is about the accuracy of information. It does not tell people how to run their businesses, it prohibits false or misleading claims.
"And anyone - be they a customer, a competitor or the Commission - can take legal action under the Act.
"Penalties under the Act include fines, injunctions and court orders, and businesses should also consider what it would cost them in legal fees, management time and bad publicity. It is better for everyone that the law was not broken in the first place."
Copies of the Fair Trading Act - A Guide for Advertisers and Traders are available free of charge from Commission offices. Large orders should be sent to the Commission's Records Officer, phone (04) 498 0929, fax (04) 471 0771, PO Box 2351, Wellington.
