Animal Products Act 1999

Offences, penalties, and proceedings - Offences

144A: Order to pay amount because of commercial gain

You could also call this:

"Paying back money if you broke the rules for personal gain"

If you break certain rules in the Animal Products Act 1999, like those in sections 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133A, 134, and 135, you might have to pay a lot of money. The court can make you pay this money if they think you did something wrong to make money. You might have to pay this money instead of, or as well as, a penalty for what you did wrong.

If the court can work out how much money you made from doing something wrong, they can make you pay up to three times that amount. If the court cannot work out how much money you made and you are a company, they can make you pay up to 10% of your company's turnover. The court has to figure out how much money you made if it is possible to do so.

The court uses the Commerce Act 1986 to understand what "interconnected" and "turnover" mean. You have to pay the money the court orders you to pay, and it is like paying a fine. The court can get the money from you in the same way they get a fine from you.

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This page was last updated on 5 June 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS19324.

144: Liability of companies and persons for actions of agent or employee, or

"Companies and bosses are responsible for what their workers do"

145: Charging documents, or

"Getting a charging document for breaking animal product rules"

Part 10Offences, penalties, and proceedings
Offences

144AOrder to pay amount because of commercial gain

This section applies to a person convicted of an offence against any of sections 126, 127 (other than paragraph (1)(c)), 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133A, 134, and 135.
The court may make an order under subsection (4) or (5) if it is satisfied that the offence was committed in the course of producing a commercial gain.
The court may make the order in addition to, or instead of, a penalty that the court may impose under the relevant offence provision.
The court may make an order under this subsection whether or not the person is a body corporate. The order is that the person pay an amount up to 3 times the value of the commercial gain resulting from committing the offence.
The court may make an order under this subsection if the person is a body corporate and the value of the gain cannot be readily ascertained. The order is that the person pay an amount up to 10% of the combined turnover of the body corporate and every interconnected body corporate it has over the period of the offending.
The court must assess the value of a gain that is readily ascertainable.
An amount that the court orders to be paid under this section is recoverable in the same manner as a fine.
In this section, interconnected and turnover have the same meanings as in the Commerce Act 1986.

Notes

Section 144A: inserted, on 2 March 2018, by section 154 of the Food Safety Law Reform Act 2018 (2018 No 3).