The Warehouse-owned Noel Leeming has been fined $200,000 for misleading consumers about their rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act to return faulty goods.
Several complaints from consumers have led to an investigation by the Commerce Commission and the technology and appliance retailer was convicted on eight charges under the Fair Trading Act for making false or misleading representations to consumers.
“This prosecution related to multiple consumers in multiple locations. It was not isolated or ‘one off’ conduct,” said Commissioner Anna Rawlings.
Rawlings said consumers complained to Noel Leeming about products and were entitled to have their complaints treated seriously, investigated properly and remedied where appropriate.
“Instead they were misled – sometimes repeatedly – about their rights under the law, at a moment when it really mattered to consumers that their legal rights were honoured,” said Commissioner Anna Rawlings.
According to the Commerce Commission New Zealand, each charge relates to a different complainant and the conduct occurred between September 2015 and January 2017 at seven Noel Leeming stores across New Zealand. The complainants purchased consumer goods such as mobile phones, laptops and household appliances.
Consumers were misled about the right to seek remedies for faulty goods from Noel Leeming rather than the manufacturer, the right to a refund for a faulty product and the right to a replacement for a faulty product.
Judge Nicola Mathers said during sentencing in the Auckland District Court last week that there were “direct and significant departures from the truth in every case … consumers were denied their rights and had real difficulty dealing with Noel Leeming”.
One complainant told the court that he got “disruptions, anxiety, stress, [and] the feeling that I was the bad guy because I was inconveniencing them, making their life harder.”
Since 2007 the Commission has three times warned or issued compliance advice to Noel Leeming about potentially misleading consumers as to their CGA rights.
