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Trade Marks Act 2002

Legal proceedings - Border protection measures - Enforcement powers of Customs officers

155C: Chief executive may require person to appear and answer questions concerning goods in control of Customs

You could also call this:

"Customs boss can ask you to explain goods that might be illegal"

If a Customs officer thinks some goods under Customs control might have been brought into New Zealand against the law, the head of Customs can ask the person who brought them in, or their agent, to come and answer questions. This helps decide if the goods should be taken away or given back.

The notice asking you to come and answer questions must be written in a special way. It needs to say which Customs officer you'll talk to, and when and where you need to go. They can give you this notice in different ways: by handing it to you, sending it in the post, faxing it, or sending it electronically if you're registered with their system. They can also email it to you.

If they email the notice to you, it's considered delivered two working days after they send it, unless you can prove otherwise. To show they emailed it properly, they just need to show it was sent to the right email address.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM4124764.

Topics:
Business > Intellectual propertyImmigration and citizenship > Border control
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Part 4Legal proceedings
Border protection measures: Enforcement powers of Customs officers

155CChief executive may require person to appear and answer questions concerning goods in control of Customs

  1. If a Customs officer believes on reasonable grounds that goods in the control of the Customs have been imported in breach of this Act, the chief executive may, by notice in writing, require any person whom the Customs officer believes to have imported the goods, or any person whom the Customs officer believes to have acted as agent of that person, to appear before a Customs officer and to answer questions that the Customs officer considers relevant to determining whether the goods should be seized under section 155A or released.

  2. A notice under this section requiring a person to appear before a Customs officer and to answer questions must—

  3. be in the prescribed form; and
    1. specify the Customs officer before whom the person must appear; and
      1. specify a reasonable time and place at which the person must appear; and
        1. be served on the person—
          1. by delivering it to him or her in person; or
            1. by posting it to the person's address or delivering it to a box at a document exchange that the person is using at the time; or
              1. by sending it by fax machine to a telephone number used by the person for the transmission of documents by fax; or
                1. if the person is a registered user of a registered user system (within the meaning of section 322 of the Customs and Excise Act 2018), transmitting it by electronic means to the person in accordance with the normal procedure of operation of the registered user system in relation to that person.
                  1. by emailing it to the person at an email address that is used by the person.

                  2. In the absence of proof to the contrary, a notice that is emailed to a person must be treated as served on the person on the second working day after the date on which it is emailed, and, in proving that the notice was emailed, it is sufficient to prove that the notice was properly addressed and sent to the email address.

                  Notes
                  • Section 155C: inserted, on , by section 23 of the Trade Marks Amendment Act 2011 (2011 No 71).
                  • Section 155C(2)(d)(iv): replaced, on , by section 443(3) of the Customs and Excise Act 2018 (2018 No 4).
                  • Section 155C(3): inserted, on , by section 80(3) of the Electronic Interactions Reform Act 2017 (2017 No 50).