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NZ Business Fined For Out-of-Date Website

Posted by timothy on from the how-to-kill-a-golden-goose dept.

Peter writes "A story reports that a restaurant in New Zealand has been fined NZ$3000 for failing to keep its website up to date. By having out-of-date menus and prices on its website, it has breached the Fair Trading Act, according to the New Zealand Commerce Commission."

4 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. Nonsense by Stevyn · · Score: 5, Informative

    The fact that it's on the Internet is moot; it's false advertising. Simply that.

  2. this happened to my dad's engineering company by CAIMLAS · · Score: 4, Informative

    This happened to my dad's small engineering company. He had the phrase "engineers" on the site, when in fact there was a single engineer (PE) and an EIT (engineer in training) who was weeks away from becoming a full-fledged engineer.

    I think the state board of licensure fined him something around $50,000? Absolutely rediculous. Granted, the head of the board was the engineer for a competing company I believe, so there might've been other motivations... stupid small states.

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  3. Re:So What? by kd5ujz · · Score: 4, Informative
    Read the Article.

    Tony's Vineyard Restaurant in Henderson, Waitakere, found out the hard way that out of date menus are misrepresntations substantial enough to attract the attention of the Commerce Commission.

    The restaurant operator pleaded guilty on Thursday in the Waitakere District Court to breaching the Fair Trading Act in relation to website promotion of its menu and prices and was fined $3,000 plus $260 in court costs.

    According to the commission, the restaurant's website made various representations about the availability and price of certain meals on the menu over a six month period dating from a customer complaint.

    The commission said that many of the meals were not actually available for order at the restaurant, and others were not available at the listed price. In some circumstances, the website price varied between 17 and 36 per cent cheaper than the in-house menu.

    The complaining customer had notified both the restaurant and the Restaurant Association of New Zealand that the website menu was out of date and misleading, but the operator, despite knowing about the issue, had done nothing to correct the website.
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  4. Re:If the website was hosted outside of New Zealan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think you missed the point.

    We are protected here in NZ, from false advertising which may draw us into a store, restaurant etc. expecting low priced goods or special bargains.

    The restaurant can host its website wherever it wants, it was still telling New Zealanders that it had specific items on its menu, which it no longer actually serves.

    p.s. last time I dined there the staff were rude and incompetent, and they deserve to be straightened out in any way possible.