Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990

Regulated products that must be notified

72: Director-General may issue warning

You could also call this:

"The government can warn people about a product that might be harmful."

Illustration for Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990

The Director-General can issue a public warning if they think a product might harm people. You should know that this warning is about a product that has been notified, which means the people who make it have told the government about it. The Director-General has to have a good reason to think the product is a risk.

If the Director-General issues a warning, it is protected, which means they cannot get in trouble for saying something that might not be entirely true, as long as they believed it at the time. This protection is called qualified privilege. You can find more information about changes to this law in the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act 2020.

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This page was last updated on 29 June 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS428699.

Topics:

Health and wellbeing > Public healthBusiness > Industry rulesRights and equality > Privacy

71: Director-General may require notifier to provide information about safety of notifiable product, or

"The government can ask you for safety information about a product you've told them about."

73: Recall, or

"When a product is not safe, the government can make the maker take it back."

Part 4Regulated products that must be notified

72Director-General may issue warning

If the Director-General has reasonable grounds to believe that the continued availability of a notifiable product poses a risk of harm to people, the Director-General may issue a public warning to that effect.
A public warning issued under subsection (1) is protected by qualified privilege.

Notes

Section 72: inserted, on 11 November 2020, by section 27 of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Act 2020 (2020 No 62).