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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Fair Trading Act 1986

Product safety - Product safety officers

33C: Powers of product safety officers

You could also call this:

“Product safety officers can check places for unsafe goods”

A product safety officer can go into and check a place, except for someone’s home, without needing permission if they think there might be unsafe goods there. They can do this to find out if the goods are really unsafe.

When the officer is in the place, they can look at the goods, take photos, and buy them. They can ask the person in charge for their name and ID. The officer can also ask where the goods came from and who they were sold to.

If the officer needs to go into someone’s home, they need the owner’s permission or a special document called a warrant. A warrant is like a permission slip from a judge.

To get a warrant, the officer must explain why they think there are unsafe goods in the home. They have to follow special rules when they ask for a warrant.

When the officer is in the home with permission or a warrant, they can do the same things they can do in other places, like looking at goods and taking photos.

There are more rules about how the officer should behave and what they can do, which are written in another law called the Search and Surveillance Act.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM5837738.

Topics:
Business > Fair trading
Business > Industry rules
Money and consumer rights > Consumer protection
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“Proof of job for product safety officers”

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33D: Suspension of supply notices, or

“Stopping the sale of possibly dangerous goods to keep people safe”

Part 3 Product safety
Product safety officers

33CPowers of product safety officers

  1. A product safety officer may enter and inspect a place (not being a dwellinghouse) without a warrant if—

  2. the product safety officer believes on reasonable grounds that—
    1. certain goods are unsafe (suspect goods); and
      1. the suspect goods are supplied at, or dispatched from, the place; and
      2. the entry and inspection is for the purpose of ascertaining, or taking steps to ascertain, whether the suspect goods are in fact unsafe.

        1. While at the place, a product safety officer may, for the purpose described in subsection (1), do any of the following:

        2. with respect to any goods at the place that are available to consumers for supply or are dispatched for supply to consumers, inspect the goods, photograph them, and purchase them at the price for which they are currently offered for sale:
          1. require the person who appears at the time to be in charge of the supply or dispatch of goods at the place (the person in charge) to give his or her name and show to the product safety officer identification sufficient to confirm that the name given is correct:
            1. require the person in charge to identify the person from whom the suspect goods were acquired:
              1. if suspect goods have, within a specified period, been supplied in trade to another person other than by retail, require the person in charge to identify the person or persons to whom they have been supplied during that period:
                1. require any person by whom suspect goods are carried for delivery pursuant to, or in connection with, a contract of sale to give—
                  1. his or her name and address; and
                    1. the name and address of his or her employer (if any); and
                      1. the name and address of the owner of the goods, if known.

                      2. If a product safety officer enters a dwellinghouse with the permission of the occupier or under a warrant issued under subsection (4), the product safety officer may, for the purpose described in subsection (1)(b), exercise the powers listed in subsection (2).

                      3. An issuing officer (within the meaning of section 3 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012) may issue a warrant authorising a product safety officer to enter a dwellinghouse if the issuing officer is satisfied, on application made in accordance with subsection (5), that there are reasonable grounds for believing that it is necessary for the product safety officer to enter the dwellinghouse for the purpose of ascertaining—

                      4. whether there are any suspect goods at the dwellinghouse that are or may be available to consumers for supply, or are or may be being dispatched for supply to consumers; and
                        1. if there are, whether the goods are unsafe.

                          1. The application for a warrant must be made in writing in the manner provided for an application for a search warrant in subpart 3 of Part 4 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012.

                          2. Part 4 of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 (except sections 118 and 119) applies.

                          Compare
                          Notes
                          • Section 33C: inserted, on , by section 22 of the Fair Trading Amendment Act 2013 (2013 No 143).