Mercury fined $279,500 for misleading customers

Auckland district court. (Image: BusinessDesk)

Thu, 25 May 2023

Mercury NZ has been fined $279,500 for misleading about 2,000 customers about fees they were forced to pay for early termination. In a May 2 ruling, judge Simon Lance ordered the power company to pay the fine for breaches of the Fair Trading Act brought by the Commerce Commission. The regulator claimed Mercury charged customers between 2017 and 2020 a $150 early termination fee for cancelling an automatically renewing plan, despite changes in 2016 that ditched the charge. “It’s vital that staff are trained properly an...

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