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Weights and Measures Act 1987

Use of weights and measures for trade

11: Exceptions to obligation to use metric weights and measures in advertising goods for sale

You could also call this:

“When you don't need to use metric measurements in ads for selling things”

You don’t always have to use metric weights and measures when advertising goods for sale. There are some exceptions to this rule. You can use non-metric units alongside metric units if:

The non-metric unit is shown in addition to the metric unit, and it’s not bigger or more noticeable than the metric unit.

The goods you’re selling have been brought into New Zealand from another country, or they’re part of a set of goods that are meant to be sold in New Zealand and another country. They might have been originally meant to be sold in another country when they were marked with the non-metric unit.

For goods that were meant to be sold in another country, the law of that country or an agreement about bringing those goods into that country required them to be marked with the non-metric unit.

This exception helps make sure that goods from other countries can still be sold in New Zealand, even if they have non-metric measurements on them.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM102556.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection Business > Fair trading Business > Industry rules
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10: Obligation to use metric system in advertising goods for sale, or

"You must use metric units when selling things in New Zealand"

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12: Obligation to sell goods by net weight or measure, or

"Sellers must tell you how much of a product you're actually getting"

Part 2 Use of weights and measures for trade

11Exceptions to obligation to use metric weights and measures in advertising goods for sale

  1. Nothing in section 10 applies to the use by any person of any unit of a weight or measure which is not a unit of a weight or measure of the metric system on any goods displayed or exposed for sale by retail or on the package of any such goods or on both if—

  2. that unit is additional to a unit of a weight or measure of the metric system and that unit and the figures in which that unit and the numerical value of that unit are marked are no larger than those of that metric weight or measure; and
    1. the goods—
      1. have been imported into New Zealand; or
        1. are part of a line of goods intended for sale by retail both in New Zealand and another country or were, when marked with the unit of a weight or measure of a system which is not the metric system, intended for sale by retail in another country; and
        2. in the case of the goods referred to in paragraph (b)(ii), those goods were required, by the law of that other country or pursuant to the terms of any contract relating to the import of those goods into that other country, to be marked with that non-metric unit.

          Compare
          • 1976 No 162 s 4A
          • 1980 No 154 s 2