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Prostitution Reform Act 2003

Operator certificates

34: Operators of businesses of prostitution to hold certificates

You could also call this:

"People running prostitution businesses must have a special certificate to operate legally."

If you run a business of prostitution, you must have a certificate. You can get this certificate under section 35. If you do not have a certificate when you are supposed to, you can get in trouble and have to pay a fine of up to $10,000.

If you are charged with not having a certificate, you might say you do not need one because you work at a small brothel that you own. In this case, you have to prove that you are telling the truth.

When this law first started, you would not get in trouble for not having a certificate for the first six months.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM197890.

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Part 3Operator certificates

34Operators of businesses of prostitution to hold certificates

  1. Every operator of a business of prostitution (other than a company) must hold a certificate issued under section 35.

  2. Every person who, while required by subsection (1) to hold a certificate, does not hold a certificate commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000.

  3. If a person who is charged under subsection (2) claims that he or she is not an operator because he or she is a sex worker at a small owner-operated brothel and is not an operator of any other business of prostitution, it is for the person charged to prove that assertion on the balance of probabilities.

  4. Despite subsection (2), no person may be convicted of an offence under that subsection if the period during which the person does not hold a certificate is the first 6 months after this section comes into force.

Notes
  • Section 34(2): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).