Introduction to how advertising law affects advertisers in New Zealand

In New Zealand, advertising is regulated by law and self-regulating codes of conduct. As a starting point,all advertising should comply with the Fair Trading Act 1986, the Advertising Standards Authority Codes of Conduct, and should not contain any other person’s intellectual property without permission.

Advertising should:

• be truthful

• comply with specific legislation and industry rules around advertising of the product.

Advertising should not:

• feature or encourage any unlawful or dangerous activity

• give any overall misleading impression

• denigrate competitors

• infringe any other person’s intellectual property.

In this information sheet, we outline which advertising media channels are regulated, how you can assess whether your advertising complies, what you can do if you’d like to stop an advertisement, and the penalties for breaching the Fair Trading Act 1986 or the Advertising Standards Authority Codes of Conduct.