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Customs and Excise Act 2018

Final and miscellaneous provisions - Offences - Miscellaneous provisions relating to offences

394: Corporate liability

You could also call this:

"When a business breaks the law, the people in charge can also get in trouble"

Illustration for Customs and Excise Act 2018

If you are part of a company or business, you need to know about corporate liability. In this context, an enterprise is any business, like a company or a trust. When a business breaks the law under the Customs and Excise Act, certain people can also get in trouble.

You can get in trouble if you are a director, manager, or agent of the business and you helped or agreed with the action that broke the law. This also applies if you pretend to be one of these people and help or agree with the action. You will be liable for the penalty, which is the punishment for breaking the law.

The penalty you get will be the one set for an individual, or the standard penalty for the offence if there is no specific one for individuals. You can still get in trouble even if the business itself has not been charged or found guilty of the offence, as stated in the Customs and Excise Act. This is similar to a previous law, s 217 of 1996 No 27.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7039870.

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Part 6Final and miscellaneous provisions
Offences: Miscellaneous provisions relating to offences

394Corporate liability

  1. In this section, enterprise means any body corporate, partnership, trust, or other business.

  2. If an enterprise commits an offence under this Act, the following persons also commit the offence:

  3. every director, manager, secretary, officer, or agent of the enterprise who participated in, directed, authorised, acquiesced in, or assented to the act or omission:
    1. every person who—
      1. purports to act in the capacity of director, manager, secretary, officer, or agent of the enterprise; and
        1. participated in, directed, authorised, acquiesced in, or assented to the act or omission.

        2. An individual who commits an offence as provided for in this section is liable on conviction—

        3. to the penalty prescribed for an individual by the section or regulation creating the offence; or
          1. if there is no penalty so prescribed for an individual, to the penalty so prescribed for the offence.

            1. To avoid doubt, a person may be convicted of an offence as provided for in this section, even if the enterprise has not itself been charged with, or convicted of, the offence.

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