Consumer Protection - The Right to Repair in New Zealand

My daughters have both recently damaged their devices. My eldest daughter dropped her phone smashing the frame and my younger daughter dropped her phone on to her school laptop, damaging the screen and causing it to flicker. These are expensive devices to replace, and we telephoned our insurers and were referred to an authorized repair company. Unfortunately, the phone was incapable of repair and was replaced – I think my daughter was rather pleased to receive a new phone unlike her Dad who would have preferred that she had not dropped it. Our repairs were necessitated by a lack of care rather than any inherent defects. There was no obsolescence angle in our repairs. Anyway, we surrendered the damaged phone, no doubt either to be recycled or to landfill, we don’t know. Hopefully the former and the laptop is thankfully now under repair.

These incidents got me thinking about the right to repair in New Zealand and the recent introduction of the Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill (the Bill).

Consumer Guarantees (Right to Repair) Amendment Bill

On 19 February 2025, the Bill passed its first reading in the New Zealand Parliament, sponsored by New Zealand’s Green Party co-leader the Hon. Marama Davidson. Given the Green Party is the sponsor of the Bill, it is not surprising that the General policy statement in the Explanatory note refers to the Bill being “a small but critical step in upholding [New Zealand’s] commitments, under the Paris Agreement,” and that “Keeping products in use as long as practicably possible preserves valuable resources. It reduces the emissions created by producing and transporting new products. Resources are kept in circulation and out of landfills.”

Davidson also believes, as reported on Radio New Zealand, that the Bill will favour consumers over big corporates "who build obsolescence into their products so people have to keep coming back to replace their things and spend more of their money".

What does the Bill do?

As outlined in the Explanatory note “This Bill amends the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 [the Act] to require manufacturers to make repair parts and information available to consumers. This will extend the lifetime of products, keeping resources in circulation and waste out of landfills. This reform is an important step toward building a circular resource economy to mitigate climate change and protect biodiversity. By enabling consumers to repair rather than replace products, it also reduces household expenses at a moment when cost pressures are particularly acute.”

The Amendments to the Consumer Guarantees Act 1991

The Bill gives consumers the right to repair their products by repealing section 42 of the Act, replacing section 12 and inserting new section 19A.

Repealing section 42

Section 42 of the Act provides that repair facilities and parts do not have to be made available if the consumer is notified at the time the product is supplied that these will not be available. This means that many products, which might be easily repaired, are instead dumped. The Bill removes this provision.

Replacing section 12

The Bill also replaces section 12 to expand consumers’ guarantees regarding information, repairs, and spare parts. It requires that the manufacturer provides, upon the consumers’ request, the information, spare parts, and tools necessary to diagnose, maintain, or repair goods which have been supplied by the manufacturer.

Inserting section 19A

Section 19A empowers consumers to request that suppliers repair goods rather than replacing them.

Parties Supporting the Bill

It appears that the Bill has some cross-party support from Labour, NZ First and Te Pāti Māori as it passed the first reading and has now progressed to select committee stage.

Parties Opposing the Bill and the Australian Example

New Zealand National and Act New Zealand voted against the Bill, in its current form.

In the first reading debate MP Dan Bidois (National – Northcote) said in opposing the Bill that they “support the intent but we have serious concerns about the details” but that National instead will be looking “at more targeted approaches to rights of repair”.

Bidois acknowledged the Australian example “...implemented in 2021 around sharing motor vehicle and service repair information.”  Bidois explained that is a “great example of choosing out of these tens of thousands of products, a product category that actually will make a big difference to consumers, a big difference to the environmental outcomes of this country...”. In Australia “They created a marketplace so that automotive manufacturers can sell to the secondary market their information so that repairers can access that information at a fair price, and that is going to be good for consumers.”

Bidois acknowledges that there is scope for reviewing the Fair Trading Act 1986 “…to help strengthen the rights of consumers and the rights of businesses and the obligations for manufacturers so that the intent of this bill can be delivered in a pragmatic way. That is something that the Government will be looking at as a review of the Fair Trading Act.”

Other Drawbacks with the Bill

As reported on Radio New Zealand: Auckland University Professor and member of the Right to Repair Coalition Alex Simms calls it a "first step". it was a worldwide movement and New Zealand was "lagging behind", she told Radio New Zealand.

Simms said one drawback of the existing bill was that the Commerce Commission would not have the power to compel manufacturers to comply because it is an amendment to the Consumer Guarantees Act. One suggestion that arose during the debate in Parliament was that it should become part of the Fair Trading Act so that ComCom would have enforcement powers. Also, currently if a consumer takes an item such as a phone to an unauthorised repairer a warranty becomes void - that would no longer apply if the bill became law, Professor Simms said. "That will really help people get stuff fixed a lot cheaper."

Select Committee Submission Deadline

The Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee is calling for public submissions on the Bill. The closing date for submissions on the Bill is 11:59pm on Thursday, 3 April 2025.

Concluding Comments

It will be interesting to see what submissions are made as the Bill passes through the select committee stage. There appears to be support across Parliament for the broad enhancement of consumer rights and indeed manufacturers will need to prepare for the changes to NZ legislation, if the bill progresses to legislation.

Who knows, it might also see the emergence of neighborhood repair shops or an opportunity for a national business to develop a service repairing products. Shows like the BBC's The Repair Shop are a testament to the popularity and the emergence of people wanting to repair rather than replace their goods.

In the meantime, in our family, we await the outcome of the repair to my daughter's laptop. Fingers-crossed, there is no flickering laptop screen, and this latest repair is a success.