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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Health Act 1956

Fluoridation of drinking water - Offences

116M: Additional penalty for certain offences for commercial gain

You could also call this:

"Bigger fines for breaking health laws to make money"

If you break the law under section 116J of the Health Act 1956, the court can give you an extra penalty. This extra penalty is for when you break the law to make money. The court can order you to pay a certain amount of money if it thinks you broke the law to make a commercial gain. You might have to pay up to three times the amount of money you made by breaking the law, or 10% of your company's turnover if you are a company and the court cannot work out how much you made.

The court will decide how much money you made by breaking the law. You will have to pay the amount of money the court orders you to pay, and this is like paying a fine. When the court talks about a company's "turnover" or "interconnected" companies, it means the same thing as in section 2 of the Commerce Act 1986, which you can find on the legislation.govt.nz website.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS630030.

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"Time limit to charge someone for breaking drinking water fluoridation rules"

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116N: Liability of principal for acts of agents, or

"Your boss can get in trouble if you break the rules at work, even if they didn't know about it."

Part 5AFluoridation of drinking water
Offences

116MAdditional penalty for certain offences for commercial gain

  1. If a person is convicted of an offence against section 116J, the court may (in addition to any penalty it may impose under that section) impose an order under subsection (2) if satisfied that the offence was committed in the course of producing a commercial gain.

  2. The court may order the person to pay an amount not exceeding—

  3. 3 times the value of any commercial gain resulting from the commission of the offence; or
    1. if the person is a body corporate, and the value of any gain cannot be readily ascertained, 10% of the turnover of the body corporate and all of its interconnected bodies corporate (if any).

      1. For the purposes of subsection (1), the value of any gain (if readily ascertainable) must be assessed by the court, and any amount ordered to be paid under subsection (2)(a) or (b) is recoverable in the same manner as a fine.

      2. In this section, interconnected and turnover have the same meanings as in section 2 of the Commerce Act 1986.

      Notes
      • Section 116M: inserted, on , by section 5 of the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 44).