Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Plain Language Law homepage
272G: Offence to misrepresent status as product certification body
or “It's against the law to pretend you're allowed to check and approve building products when you're not.”

You could also call this:

“It's against the law to falsely claim a product has been approved or certified when it hasn't.”

You must not say that something has a current product certificate, a registered product certificate, or has been evaluated and certified under the product certification scheme if it’s not true. If you do this, you are breaking the law. This is called an offence.

If you break this law, you can be punished. The punishment depends on whether you are an individual person or a company. If you’re an individual, you might have to pay a fine of up to $300,000. If you’re a company, the fine could be up to $1,500,000.

It’s important to always tell the truth about product certificates and certification. This helps keep everyone safe and ensures that products are properly certified.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.


Next up: 272I: Appointment of modular component manufacturer certification accreditation body

or “The boss can choose and remove someone to check and approve companies that make building parts.”

Part 3 Regulatory responsibilities and accreditation
Responsibilities relating to product certification: Offences relating to product registration scheme

272HOffence to misrepresent product certificate

  1. A person must not represent something as any of the following if that is not the case:

  2. having a current product certificate:
    1. having a registered product certificate:
      1. having been evaluated and certified under the product certification scheme under this subpart.
        1. A person who fails to comply with subsection (1)—

        2. commits an offence; and
          1. is liable on conviction,—
            1. in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding $300,000:
              1. in the case of a body corporate, to a fine not exceeding $1,500,000.
              Notes
              • Section 272H: inserted, on , by section 67 of the Building (Building Products and Methods, Modular Components, and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 21).