15. Full List of Discussion Document Questions

Principles and Purpose Statement for Consumer Laws

1. What are your views on including purpose statements in the Fair Trading Act, the Consumer Guarantees Act, and the Weights and Measures Act along the following lines:

• Fair Trading Act – "To promote consumer wellbeing by fostering effective competition and enabling the confident participation of consumers in markets in which both consumers and suppliers trade fairly and in good faith."
• Consumer Guarantees Act – "To promote consumer wellbeing in markets by:

a) defining rights that give consumers confidence that their reasonable expectations about a good or service provided by a supplier or manufacturer will be met, including expectations about the good or service's performance, quality, purpose, or safety.

b) defining rights for consumers to seek redress from a supplier or manufacturer where those reasonable expectations have not been met."

• Weights and Measures Act – "To promote consumer and business confidence and effective market competition through ensuring goods are exchanged using accurate measurement, and regulating measuring instruments in use for trade."

2. Are there other principles or objectives you think should be referred to in the consumer law(s)?

3. Should any purpose statement in the Fair Trading Act include a reference to consumers and suppliers trading in good faith, and for what reasons?

Unfair Practices: Unfair Contract Terms

4. Do you support including unfair contract terms provisions in the Fair Trading Act along the lines of the Australian Consumer Law, and for what reasons?

5. Is it appropriate to include a "good faith" element in the definition of an unfair contract term (like the United Kingdom and Victorian legislation, and the Productivity Commission recommendation), or is the approach used in the Australian Consumer Law preferable?

6. Do you think the approach used in the Australian Consumer Law of providing examples of unfair contract terms would be appropriate for New Zealand law?

Unfair Practices: Unsubstantiated Claims

7. Should there be a general prohibition on unsubstantiated claims under the Fair Trading Act, and for what reasons?

8. Should any general prohibition on unsubstantiated claims (or any other preferred approach) be enforceable by the Commerce Commission and/or privately under the Fair Trading Act?

Door to Door and Other Direct Selling

9. What direct selling (door to door sales, telemarketing, other defined direct selling), if any, should be regulated, and for what reasons?

10. Should direct selling law only apply to purchases above a particular value (for example, $100)?

11. Do you support a cooling-off period of 7 days, 10 days or another timeframe?

12. Should the supply of the goods or services be prohibited during the cooling-off period, and for what reasons?

13. Should there be any regulation of the hours when direct marketers may call on consumers? Why, and if you think there should be regulated hours, what hours?

14. What are your views on moving regulation of direct selling to the Fair Trading Act?

Unsolicited Goods and Services

15. Do you support unsolicited goods and services provisions along the same lines as those in the proposed Australian Consumer Law, and for what reasons?

16. What are your views on moving regulation of unsolicited goods and services to the Fair Trading Act?

Unconscionable Conduct

17. Is it appropriate to include a prohibition on unconscionable conduct in the Fair Trading Act, along the lines of the Australian Trade Practices Act and the proposed Australian Consumer Law?

18. Should any remedies for unconscionable conduct be restricted to consumers or also available to businesses, and for what reasons?

19. Would it be more effective to amend the Fair Trading Act by applying the broader concept of "oppression" from the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act to the supply of goods and services generally, rather than amending the Fair Trading Act to extend the application of the case law concept of unconscionability?

Product Safety

20. A range of provisions exist under the Consumer Guarantees Act and the Fair Trading Act in relation to consumer product safety. Do you think these provisions are sufficient, and if not, what changes do you suggest?

21. What are your views on New Zealand adopting a "reasonably foreseeable" test of product safety regulation along the lines being considered for the Australian Consumer Law?

22. What are your views on the regulator being able to initiate a product recall itself where a supplier fails to undertake a compulsory recall?

23. What are your views on mandatory notification to the regulator of voluntary recalls and incidents where products are associated with serious injury or death?

24. What are your views on the Fair Trading Act including provisions for the Minister to issue Government product safety policy statements?

Consumer Information

25. The Fair Trading Act provides for consumer information regulations. Do you think these provisions are sufficient, and if not, what changes do you suggest?

26. What are your views about adding testing requirements to the consumer information regulation-making powers?

27. What are your views on including specific disclosure requirements in the Fair Trading Act concerning third party collectors fundraising for charities?

Layby Sales

28. Do we need detailed provisions regulating layby sales or would a more principles-based approach be better?

29. Should the definition of a layby sale be amended so any transaction with less than three instalments (i.e. a deposit and later payment in full) is not a layby sale under the Act, and for what reasons?

30. Is it appropriate that sellers can recover all their costs on the cancellation of a layby sale or should the seller's costs be limited to specific costs associated with the layby transaction?

31. What are your views on moving regulation of layby sales to the Fair Trading Act?

Weights and Measures

32. What are your views on the Weights and Measures Act remaining standalone or moving to the Fair Trading Act?

33. Are there any other areas within the Weights and Measures Act that you think could be improved? Please provide details and supporting explanation.

Carriage of Goods Law and Consumers

34. Is it appropriate for consumers to have rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act in relation to carrier services?

Regulation of Auctioneers and Auctions

35. Which do you consider the most appropriate approach to licensing auctioneers, and why – positive licensing, negative licensing or an industry-led approach?

36. Are there any particular competencies or standards of conduct that should be required of auctioneers by an approved industry body under an industry-led approach or positive licensing?

37. Are the legal rules which apply to auctions (primarily under the Sale of Goods Act) appropriate, or should they be updated?

38. If there is a valid distinction between a traditional auction conducted online and a Trade Me style auction, should purchasers from Trade Me style auctions have the benefit of the guarantees under the Consumer Guarantees Act?

39. What are your views on the suggested ways to clearly identify auctions exempted from the Consumer Guarantees Act (a new definition of auction; that auctions must be conducted by a licensed or approved auctioneer; that online auctions must meet certain requirements)?

Consumer Guarantees

40. What are your views on specific regulation of extended warranties?

41. What are your views on requiring greater disclosure of information to consumers on extended warranties?

42. What are your views on requiring a “cooling-off” period for cancelling an extended warranty?

43. What are your views on providing an “opt-in” period for buying an extended warranty?

44. Should any law regulating extended warranties be enforced by the Commerce Commission under the Fair Trading Act, and for what reasons?

45. What are your views on the Consumer Guarantees Act providing that a requirement for any bond for assessment of a faulty good must be disclosed to the consumer in writing before the good is purchased?

46. Is it appropriate that "refusing" to remedy a failure under the Consumer Guarantees Act also includes “refusal by words or conduct”, and for what reasons?

47. What are your views on including the equivalent to section 89(2) of the Motor Vehicle Sales Act in the Consumer Guarantees Act for situations when goods are rejected and there is a collateral credit agreement?

48. What are your views on amending the Consumer Guarantees Act to provide that both an electricity retailer and a lines company would be liable for the quality guarantees set out in the Act?

Enforcement

49. What are your views on including in the Fair Trading Act provisions for court enforceable undertakings?

50. What are your views on including enforcement orders in the Fair Trading Act for the banning of recidivist traders from certain activities?

Consolidation of Consumer Law

51. What are your views on a single, enhanced Fair Trading Act that also incorporates the Consumer Guarantees Act and/or the Weights and Measures Act?

52. What are your views on continuing to have a separate Consumer Guarantees Act and/or a Weights and Measures Act?