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Changes to our Terms and Privacy Policy
In 2013 Parliament passed some changes to our consumer laws that affect Trade Me members, like declaring your ‘In Trade’ status, substantiating claims, and increased protection for members who buy via online auction. Today we’d like to chat about some upcoming changes to our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Unfair contract terms
The provisions under the Fair Trading Act in relation to unfair contract terms come into effect on 17 March 2015. Unfair contract terms relate to contracts that businesses enter into with their members or customers where the member doesn’t have the opportunity to negotiate the terms, as they’re offered on a take it or leave it basis. You’ll see these all the time as a consumer – think of the contracts with your gym, internet provider, phone or electricity company.
From 17 March 2015, businesses will be required to ensure terms in their consumer contracts aren’t unfair. Businesses also have to ensure that their terms are transparent, accessible and easy to read. For more information on unfair contract terms, we recommend you check out the Commerce Commission’s guidelines.
Communicating policy changes
At Trade Me, we think our terms and conditions are already pretty fair. However, we want to be transparent with our members, so we will be clarifying how changes to our terms and conditions will be communicated to you, and why we make certain decisions in relation to your membership.
Clause 1.2 will be amended to clarify that we will communicate all changes to you by site announcement (much like we’re doing with this one!). Generally we’ll give you two weeks’ notice to review these changes, although as our business moves pretty quickly, we may be required to make urgent changes from time to time. For changes that we think are significant, we may provide you with an opportunity to give feedback on our message board and we’ll take that feedback into consideration. We may also notify you directly via email if we think changes will materially affect you.
Member conduct
We’re also updating clauses 2.6 and 3.3, to provide more transparency on the kind of conduct that we won’t tolerate on Trade Me. When a member repeatedly fails to comply with their obligations as a buyer or seller, or presents a risk to our community or to our services, we may suspend or terminate their account.
These changes will come into effect on 19 March 2015. As always, if you have any questions don’t hesitate to drop us a line.