Online auctions: consumer rights – at last

Are you one of the many New Zealand businesses that sell its goods through online auction sites like Trademe?

If you are, take note, because amendments are coming in the middle of this year to our consumer laws – including the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 (CGA) and the Fair Trading Act 1986 (FTA) – which may affect your business...BIG time.

The amendments are the most significant set of changes to our consumer-related legislation in nearly 20 years. For this article I have chosen to focus on an aspect of the changes which to some businesses may be insignificant, but which to an ever-increasing number of small-medium size businesses is highly significant: the granting of rights to consumers who buy goods through online auctions.