Waste Management NZ Limited

The Commission has issued a warning letter to Waste Management (WMNZ) for billing errors which resulted in some residential customers being referred to debt collectors for amounts they did not owe WMNZ. The Commission’s investigation established WMNZ has likely breached s 13(i) of the Fair Trading Act 1986 (FT Act) by making false and/or misleading representations to customers that WMNZ had a right to collect money from them, when they did not have that right as consumers did not owe WMNZ the amounts represented as payable. WMNZ has offered, and the Commission has accepted, court enforceable undertakings pursuant to section 46A of the FT Act, to record the steps WMNZ will take to continue the review of its billing processes and complete its customer remediation process. WMNZ has invested significant resources into fixing its billing processes and through the remediation process will return large sums of money to identified customers.