17 Dec 2025

TV advertising company convicted of misleading customers

From Checkpoint, 5:08 pm on 17 December 2025

A store selling well known brands through infomercials has been found guilty of falsifying customer product reviews; getting staff who had ever used the goods to pen positive write ups. The TV shop has been convicted of 13 charges of breaching the fair trading act over nearly four years. The court found the parent company misled customers about the popularity and quality of its good, effectively using staff posing as real customers. It also erased genuine negative reviews. The Commerce Commission's Deputy Chair Anne Callinan spoke to Lisa Owen.