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Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017

Other commercial matters - Mercantile agents - Sales, pledges, and other dispositions by mercantile agents

299: Effect of withdrawal or expiry of owner’s consent

You could also call this:

“What happens when the owner changes their mind about letting someone sell their stuff”

When a person who sells things for others (called a mercantile agent) has goods or papers that show ownership of goods, with the owner’s permission, some special rules apply. Even if the owner takes back their permission or it runs out, any sale or promise made by the agent is still okay. This is true as long as the person buying or getting the goods doesn’t know that the owner’s permission is no longer valid. This rule helps protect people who buy things from agents, making sure their purchase is still good even if something changed with the owner’s permission.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6844642.

Topics:
Business > Fair trading Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection
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Part 5 Other commercial matters
Mercantile agents: Sales, pledges, and other dispositions by mercantile agents

299Effect of withdrawal or expiry of owner’s consent

  1. This section applies if a mercantile agent has, with the consent of the owner of goods, been in possession of the goods or of the documents of title to the goods.

  2. A sale, a pledge, or any other disposition that would have been valid if the consent of the owner had continued is valid despite the withdrawal or expiry of the consent.

  3. However, subsection (2) applies only if the person who takes the goods under the disposition does not, at the time of the disposition, have notice that the consent has been withdrawn or has expired.

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