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For the first time, the Commerce Commission is seeking financial penalties from the High Court for breaches of responsible lending laws.
The commission alleged that Go Car Finance and Second Chance Finance breached the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) when lending money to people to buy cars.
"This is the first time that any lender will be taken to the High Court for pecuniary penalties for responsible lending breaches," the commission's credit general manager Louise Unger said.
She said as with all providers of consumer credit, car finance lenders had a responsibility under the CCCFA to ensure any credit provided met the borrower's needs and objectives, and they must check that the borrower would be able to actually make payments under the loan without suffering substantial hardship.
"In our view, both lenders have not been appropriately assessing loan affordability when making car finance available," she said.
"Our legal action will address the potential for these lenders to have caused substantial financial hardship to Kiwi consumers."
The commission was seeking declarations from the High Court that both Go Car Finance and Second Chance Finance breached the lender responsibility principles by failing to sufficiently assess whether consumers could afford their car finance between 2019-2022 and 2021-2022 respectively.
It was also seeking declarations that Second Chance Finance breached its record keeping obligations, and that its director failed to exercise their due diligence duty to ensure the business complied with its duties and obligations under the CCCFA.
"We are also seeking orders for the lenders to pay statutory damages to named borrowers as well as the waiving of any outstanding amounts owed by borrowers where their vehicles have been repossessed," Unger said.
The commission said it was the most significant action it had taken in the car finance sector to date.
