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Customer and Product Data Act 2025

Administrative matters - Regulations, standards, and exemptions - Regulations

135: Levies payable by data holders and accredited requestors

You could also call this:

“Data holders and accredited requestors must pay special fees to help cover costs”

You need to pay a special fee called a levy if you’re a data holder or an accredited requestor. The government decides who has to pay this fee.

The Governor-General can make rules about these levies based on what the Minister recommends. These fees are used to cover different costs, like:

  • The chief executive’s work under this law
  • The Privacy Commissioner’s work related to certain violations
  • The costs of developing standards and doing some activities
  • The costs of handling certain complaints in a dispute resolution scheme
  • The costs of collecting the levy money

The Minister decides whether all or part of these costs will be covered by the levies.

If not enough money is collected in one year, they can try to recover it over the next five years.

The rules about the levies can say things like:

  • Who has to pay
  • How much they have to pay
  • How to deal with not collecting enough or collecting too much
  • How to pay and collect the levies
  • Different fees for different groups
  • When the levy applies
  • That you might have to pay for a year even if the rules are made after that year started
  • That some people might get refunds or not have to pay

These rules about levies are called secondary legislation, which means they have to follow certain steps to become official.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS920150.

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Part 5 Administrative matters
Regulations, standards, and exemptions: Regulations

135Levies payable by data holders and accredited requestors

  1. Every person that is included in a prescribed class of specified persons must pay to the Crown, or a prescribed person on behalf of the Crown, a levy prescribed by the regulations.

  2. In this section and section 136, specified person means—

  3. a data holder; and
    1. an accredited requestor.

      1. The Governor-General may, by Order in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister, make regulations providing for the levies.

      2. Levies must be prescribed on the basis that the following costs should be met fully out of the levies:

      3. the whole or a portion of the costs of the chief executive in performing or exercising their functions, powers, and duties under this Act; and
        1. the whole or a portion of the costs of the Privacy Commissioner in performing or exercising their functions, powers, and duties under the Privacy Act 2020 in connection with a contravention referred to in section 51(3) or 52(1); and
          1. the whole or a portion of the costs of a person approved under subpart 2 in connection with the development of standards and in carrying out any activities referred to in section 99(1); and
            1. the whole or a portion of the costs of a person responsible for a dispute resolution scheme referred to in section 49 that are incurred in respect of complaints of the kind referred to in section 50(1); and
              1. the costs of collecting the levy money.

                1. For the purpose of subsection (4)(a) to (d), the Minister must determine whether the whole or a portion of the costs will be met by levies under this Act (and the size of any portion).

                2. Levies may be prescribed on the basis that any actual cost that could have been, but has not been, recovered as a levy shortfall for a year may be recovered (along with any financing charge) over any period of up to 5 years.

                3. The regulations may—

                4. specify the class or classes of specified persons that are required to pay a levy:
                  1. specify the amount of levies, or method of calculating or ascertaining the amount of levies:
                    1. include in levies, or provide for the inclusion in levies of, any shortfall in recovering the actual costs:
                      1. refund, or provide for refunds of, any over-recovery of the actual costs:
                        1. provide for the payment and collection of levies:
                          1. provide different levies for different classes of specified persons:
                            1. specify the financial year or part financial year to which a levy applies, and apply that levy to that financial year or part financial year and each subsequent financial year until the levy is revoked or replaced:
                              1. require payment of a levy for a financial year or part financial year, irrespective of the fact that the regulations may be made after that financial year has commenced:
                                1. authorise a person to whom a levy is payable to refund or waive, in whole or in part and on the conditions that may be prescribed, payment of the levy by 1 or more named persons.

                                  1. Regulations made under this section are secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

                                  Notes