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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Electronic transactions - Application of legal requirements to electronic transactions - Legal requirement: retention

230: Legal requirement to retain information that is in electronic form

You could also call this:

“Rules for keeping electronic information safe and easy to find”

If you need to keep information that’s in electronic form, there are two ways you can do this:

You can print it out on paper or save it in another non-electronic way. But if you do this, you need to make sure that the way you save it keeps the information accurate and unchanged.

You can also keep it in electronic form. If you choose this option, you need to make sure of two things. First, the electronic form needs to keep the information accurate and unchanged. Second, you need to be able to easily find and use the information later when you need it.

Remember, there’s another rule (section 231) that might change how this rule works, so you should check that too.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844479.

Topics:
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229: Legal requirement to retain document or information that is in paper or other non-electronic form, or

"Keeping paper records safe by turning them into digital files"

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231: Extra conditions for electronic communications, or

"Keeping important details when saving electronic messages"

Part 4 Electronic transactions
Application of legal requirements to electronic transactions: Legal requirement: retention

230Legal requirement to retain information that is in electronic form

  1. A legal requirement to retain information that is in electronic form is met by retaining the information—

  2. in paper or any other non-electronic form if the form provides a reliable means of assuring that the integrity of the information is maintained; or
    1. in electronic form if—
      1. the electronic form provides a reliable means of assuring that the integrity of the information is maintained; and
        1. the information is readily accessible so as to be usable for subsequent reference.

        2. This section is subject to section 231.

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