Fair Trading Act Checklist For Online Stores

Yes, the Fair Trading Act applies to your online store in New Zealand. If you sell products in trade, your product descriptions, prices, promotions, reviews, delivery promises and refund wording need to be truthful and not misleading.

The slightly trickier part is that a statement can be misleading even if each individual word is technically true. The overall impression matters. A missing detail, a poorly worded discount, or a delivery claim you can't reliably meet can still create a problem.

The good news is that this doesn't have to slow your launch down. Treat the Fair Trading Act as a pre-publication checklist, just like you would check your images, stock levels and checkout flow.

Does The Fair Trading Act Apply To My Online Store?

Yes, the Fair Trading Act 1986 applies if your online store is selling goods or services in trade in New Zealand. It doesn't matter whether you sell through your own website, a marketplace, social media, email campaigns or paid ads.

The Act is mainly enforced by the Commerce Commission. It covers a wide range of conduct, but the core rule for ecommerce is simple: don't mislead or deceive customers, and don't make false or unsubstantiated advertising claims.

For an online store, the Fair Trading Act can apply to:

• Product names, descriptions and images
• Claims about ingredients, materials, features, performance or results
• Prices, discounts, sale campaigns and discount codes
• Shipping timeframes, stock availability and preorder wording
• Customer reviews, testimonials and influencer content
• Refund, returns and warranty wording
• Green claims, ethical sourcing claims, environmental claims and New Zealand made claims

If you sell to consumers, you also need to think about your Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 obligations, which gives customers automatic rights when products are faulty or don't match their description. Your returns wording shouldn't suggest those rights don't exist.

Breaches can be expensive. For many Fair Trading Act offences, the maximum court penalty is currently up to $600,000 for a company and $200,000 for an individual. Most issues won't get anywhere near that point, but the practical risk is still real: customer complaints, takedown requests, refund pressure, loss of trust and regulator attention.

What Product Claims Can I Make Without Misleading Customers?

You can make product claims if they're accurate, complete and backed by evidence at the time you make them. Under the Fair Trading Act, you shouldn't make a claim first and look for proof later.

Product pages often go wrong because they mix marketing language with factual claims. There's nothing wrong with selling enthusiastically, but factual claims need support.

Check each product page for claims about:

• What the product is: size, quantity, model, colour, materials, ingredients and compatibility
• What the product does: performance, results, durability, speed, safety, health-related benefits or therapeutic claims
• Where it comes from: New Zealand made, locally sourced, handmade or ethically produced claims
• Who it's suitable for: age, skin type, pet type, device type or professional use
• What is included: accessories, batteries, subscriptions, refills, packaging or support

Be careful with strong words like guaranteed, clinically proven, chemical-free, 100% natural, waterproof, compostable or New Zealand made. These might be fine, but only if you can prove them and there aren't hidden qualifications.

Say Miri runs an online skincare store and wants to write, Clears acne in 7 days. Unless she has reliable evidence showing that result for the relevant product and customer group, that claim is risky. A safer version might be, Formulated for oily and blemish-prone skin, if the ingredients and testing support it.

A useful rule is to ask: if a customer relied on this sentence when deciding to buy, would they get the impression you actually meant? If not, rewrite it.

How Do The Fair Trading Act Pricing Rules Work?

Your pricing is likely to comply if it's accurate, clear, and doesn't create a false sense of savings or urgency. The Fair Trading Act doesn't ban discounts, sales or bundles, but it does expect those offers to be genuine.

For online stores, pricing problems usually come from the way a price is presented. Watch for these areas:

• Was/now pricing: if you say an item was $120 and is now $80, the earlier price should have been a genuine usual price for a reasonable period.
• Percentage discounts: a 40% off claim should be calculated from a genuine reference price, not an inflated price used only to make the discount look bigger.
• Extra fees: don't hide mandatory charges until the final checkout step if you can show them earlier.
• GST: if you're selling to consumers in New Zealand, prices should generally be shown in a way that doesn't mislead them about the total amount payable.
• Free offers: if a customer needs to pay shipping, buy another item or sign up to a subscription, say that clearly near the offer.
• Limited stock or time pressure: only use claims like only 3 left or sale ends tonight if they're accurate.

Component pricing is another common trap. If you advertise a price in parts, such as $49 plus a compulsory $12 handling fee, customers should also be able to see the single total price where that amount can be calculated.

If you discover a pricing error after publishing, pause the ad or product page quickly, keep a record of what happened, and check your terms before cancelling orders. A clear pricing error clause can help, but it won't always fix a misleading promotion after the fact.

Can I Use Reviews, Influencers And Green Claims?

Yes, you can use reviews, influencer content and green claims, but only if they're genuine, transparent and supported by evidence. These are high-trust marketing tools, so regulators tend to look closely at them.

Customer Reviews

Customer reviews should reflect real customer experiences. Don't write fake reviews, ask staff to pose as customers, hide negative reviews in a way that creates a false overall impression, or reuse old reviews for a changed product.

If you moderate reviews, have a clear process. It's usually reasonable to remove spam, offensive content or reviews that refer to the wrong product, but you shouldn't only publish five-star reviews if that makes your product look more loved than it really is.

Influencers And Affiliates

If an influencer, affiliate or creator is paid, gifted products, given commission or otherwise rewarded, that connection should be clear to customers. A vague thank you in the caption may not be enough if the commercial relationship isn't obvious.

Give creators simple written rules, such as:

• Only make claims you've approved and can support
• Disclose gifts, payments, affiliate links or discount codes clearly
• Don't describe personal results as typical unless that's true
• Don't compare your product to a competitor unless the comparison is accurate

Green Claims

Green claims need special care because broad claims can mean different things to different customers. Words like eco-friendly, sustainable, plastic-free, carbon neutral and biodegradable should be backed by specific evidence.

Try to be precise. Mailer made from 80% recycled paper is usually clearer than earth-friendly packaging. If only one part of the product is recyclable, don't make the whole product sound recyclable.

What Should My Delivery And Returns Wording Say?

Your delivery and returns wording should set clear expectations without taking away rights customers already have under New Zealand law. This is where the Fair Trading Act and Consumer Guarantees Act often overlap.

Delivery promises should match what you can reliably do. If your product page says ships within 24 hours, but you don't dispatch on weekends or public holidays, say ships within 1 working day and explain cut-off times. If delivery usually takes 2 to 4 working days after dispatch, don't advertise next day delivery unless that's genuinely available for the relevant location and shipping option.

For preorders, be clear about:

• The expected dispatch date or delivery window
• Whether payment is taken upfront
• What happens if the stock is delayed
• How customers can contact you for an update
• Whether customers can cancel before dispatch

Returns wording also needs care. You can usually set your own change-of-mind policy, such as whether you accept returns for the wrong size or colour. But you can't use wording that suggests customers have no rights when a product is faulty, unsafe, doesn't match the description, or isn't fit for its usual purpose.

A risky statement is: No refunds under any circumstances. A better version is: We don't offer change-of-mind refunds, but your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act still apply if your item is faulty or doesn't match its description.

Here's a practical example. Zoe sells homewares online. She runs a promotion saying 40% off all lamps, ships in 24 hours. The lamps were $100 for most of the month, so the $60 sale price is likely easier to support. But Zoe only ships Monday to Wednesday, and the promotion goes live on Friday night. She changes the delivery wording to dispatches within 1 working day from Monday to Wednesday. That small change makes the promise much more accurate.

How Do I Run A Fair Trading Act Review Before Publishing?

You can run a Fair Trading Act review by checking the overall impression of the page, then matching every factual claim against evidence. It's best to do this before a product page, ad or returns process goes live, not after complaints arrive.

Use this simple pre-publication process:

1. Read the page as a customer: ask what a reasonable customer would think they're getting, paying and waiting for.
2. Highlight factual claims: mark claims about performance, materials, origin, results, availability, price and delivery.
3. Match each claim to evidence: keep supplier specs, supplier agreements, test results, screenshots, invoices, certifications or internal records.
4. Check the price story: confirm any discount, free offer, bundle or urgency message is genuine.
5. Check the missing details: look for conditions, exclusions, limits, fees, timeframes and location restrictions.
6. Check reviews and creator content: confirm reviews are genuine and paid relationships are disclosed.
7. Check refund wording: make sure your policy doesn't undercut Consumer Guarantees Act rights.
8. Save a record: keep a dated copy of the page, ad and evidence pack in case you need to explain your decision later.

If you want a reusable internal checklist, this outline is a good starting point. It isn't a finished legal document, and it should be tailored by a lawyer or legal team before you use it across your business.

1. Campaign Or Product Page Name: identify the page, promotion, platform and launch date.
2. Customer Audience: note whether you're selling to consumers, businesses or both.
3. Key Claims: list the exact claims you want to publish.
4. Evidence Held: record where the proof for each claim is stored.
5. Pricing And Discounts: note the previous price, sale price, dates and any conditions.
6. Availability And Delivery: record stock limits, dispatch times, courier estimates and preorder wording.
7. Reviews And Endorsements: record whether content is genuine, moderated, paid or gifted.
8. Returns And Guarantees: check wording against your Consumer Guarantees Act obligations.
9. Approver: name the person who signed off the page and the date.
10. Post-Launch Changes: record edits made after publication and why they were made.

If something feels borderline, don't guess. A small wording change often solves the issue without weakening the marketing message.

Key Takeaways

• The Fair Trading Act applies to online stores selling in trade in New Zealand, including websites, marketplaces, social media and ads.
• Product claims should be accurate, complete and supported by evidence before they're published.
• Discounts, was/now pricing, free offers and urgency messages need to be genuine and easy for customers to understand.
• Reviews, influencer content and green claims can be powerful, but they need transparency and proof.
• Delivery promises and returns policies should be clear and shouldn't reduce customers' rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act.
• A repeatable sign-off checklist can help you catch issues before customers or regulators do.

If you'd like help with your online store terms, product claim reviews, discount wording or returns policy, you can reach us at 0800 002 184 or team@sprintlaw.co.nz for a free, no-obligations chat.