Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis has written to supermarket bosses, reminding them of her expectation that they will comply with the Fair Trading Act.
She said supermarkets had a statutory obligation under the Act to ensure pricing information was accurate and did not mislead consumers.
“I am disappointed that I have to spell out to some of New Zealand’s biggest and most sophisticated retail operators – Foodstuffs North Island, Foodstuffs South Island and Woolworths – that they should have in place processes to prevent inaccurate pricing, institute and publicise refund policies and train staff to ensure that when errors are reported, fixes occur system-wide. Compliance with the law should be a basic expectation.”
Willis said she was concerned to hear from the Commerce Commission and Consumer NZ that misleading promotional practices and common pricing errors were still occurring within New Zealand’s major supermarket chains.
These practices include customers being charged more than advertised prices at checkouts, ‘specials’ that don’t represent savings on the usual price and multibuys that are more expensive than if the items were purchased individually.
Willis noted that breaches could incur a maximum penalty of $600,000 in New Zealand, compared with a fine of up to $A50 million in Australian courts.
Two Auckland Pak’nSave supermarkets pleaded guilty to breaching the Act after the Commerce Commission filed charges in the Auckland District Court.
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