24 July 2019
Alex Janssen
By email only:
[FYI request #10605 email]
Dear Ms Janssen,
Official Information Act #18.222 - Celebration Box
1.
We refer to your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request received on 25 June
2019 for details of the Commerce Commission's (Commission) Fair Trading Act 1986
(FTA) investigation into Celebration Box Limited (CBL), including:
1.1
a summary of complaints received by the Commission about CBL;
1.2
details of discovered findings during the investigation which caused CBL to be
in violation of the FTA and to cause the investigation to begin in October
2018;
1.3
the compliance advice that was given to CBL when the case was closed in
early June; and
1.4
details about any penalties if CBL fails to follow compliance advice.
Our response
2.
We have decided to grant your request.
Paragraph [1.1] - complaints about CBL
3.
The Commission has received five complaints about CBL.1 We have prepared
summaries of these complaints, contained in
Attachment A.
Paragraphs [1.2] & [1.3] - details of discovered findings / compliance advice
4.
The Commission sent CBL a compliance advice letter on 7 June 2019. A copy of the
letter is at
Attachment B.
1
At 1 July 2019.
2
5.
You can find more information about the Commission’s enforcement responses on
our website.2
6.
The details of the Commission discovered findings are contained in the compliance
advice letter.
Paragraph [1.4] - penalties
7.
The Commission will take into account the compliance advice issued to CBL in
assessing our response to any further complaints about CBL involving the same or
similar conduct. The other factors the Commission will take into account are
contained in our Enforcement Criteria.3
8.
We note that only the Court can decide whether there has been a breach of the FTA.
A Company who breaches the FTA can be fined up to $600,000 and an individual up
to $200,000, per offence.
Further information
9.
The Commission will be publishing this response to your request on its website. Your
personal details will be redacted from the published response.
10.
Please do not hesitate to contact us at
[Commerce Commission request email] if you have any
questions about this request.
Yours sincerely,
Mary Sheppard
OIA Coordinator
2
https://comcom.govt.nz/about-us/our-policies-and-guidelines/investigations-and-
enforcement/enforcement-response-guidelines
3
https://comcom.govt.nz/about-us/our-policies-and-guidelines/investigations-and-
enforcement/enforcement-criteria
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