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- Important consumer law change applies from today
Important consumer law change applies from today
From today, sellers must make it clear if they are ‘in trade’ when selling items online.
This will mean that consumers know when they are protected under the Fair Trading Act and the Consumer Guarantees Act. The Fair Trading Act applies to what people in trade say and do when selling goods and services. The Consumer Guarantees Act provides guarantees for when you purchase from a person in trade.
If you’re a professional seller and selling items in trade, the law requires you to disclose this to members when you’re selling items on Trade Me. And if you don’t, the Commerce Commission can fine you.
I’m a buyer – what do I need to do?
For buyers this is good news and you don’t need to do anything except keep an eye out for sellers with the ‘in trade’ status marked in the ‘About the seller’ section of each listing.
When you see this on an auction it means the Consumer Guarantees Act will apply to the product and you will have protection. Previously you were only protected when you’d bought the item via fixed price offer or Buy Now.
Make sure you know your legal rights under consumer law. As Sue Chetwin from Consumer put it in her guest post earlier this month: “Your rights as a consumer are about to get stronger but unless you know what they are, you might still be ripe for a rip-off.”
I’m a seller – what do I need to do?
You need to work out whether you’re in trade, not in trade or a mixture of the two. We can’t determine if you’re in trade or not, that is for you to decide. However, we have set out some things to consider in our Help section. For example, if you’re regularly or habitually offering to sell goods or services online, you’re GST registered and you’re obtaining goods with the intention of selling them, then you may be considered to be in trade.
We’ve made it easy for you to disclose that you’re selling in trade by creating a label that can appear next to your username in the ‘About the seller’ section on your listings. You can change your status from your My Trade Me page.
You can read about the ‘in trade’ disclosure, and check out our updated Code of conduct.
