Can You Start an ECommerce Adult Product Store in NZ?

In Short

• Starting an ecommerce adult product store in New Zealand requires understanding and complying with the legal regulations surrounding adult products.
• Ensure age verification measures are in place to prevent underage access.
• Effective marketing strategies and secure online operations are crucial for success in this niche market.

Tips for Businesses

When starting an adult product ecommerce store in New Zealand, focus on complying with legal regulations and implement robust age verification systems. Develop strategic marketing plans tailored to adult audiences and ensure your online platform is secure. This helps build customer trust and successfully navigate the niche market.

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Table of Contents

• Maintaining High Standards for Your Products
• Take Care Not to Mislead Your Customers
• Being Careful With Advertising
• Complying With Customs Rules
• Protect Customer Privacy
• Drafting Appropriate Documentation
• Key Takeaways
• Frequently Asked Questions

People can use ecommerce websites or online stores to sell all types of products, including adult products or toys. Starting an adult product online store can be a successful business idea, as customers may be more inclined to purchase your products discreetly over the Internet. In New Zealand, you can start an adult store using an ecommerce platform, but you need to comply with New Zealand law when you do so. This article will explain what laws may apply to you when starting an ecommerce business selling adult products in New Zealand.

Maintaining High Standards for Your Products

When you sell goods to consumers for personal use, you must comply with the Consumer Guarantees Act. This law is a part of New Zealand’s overall regulation that protects consumers, which applies to you when you regularly sell goods to consumers. In particular, you need to ensure that your adult products are:

• fit for purpose;
• of acceptable quality;
• the same as the pictures you display on your site;
• delivered on time and in good condition;
• priced reasonably where there is no predetermined figure; and
• sold legally.

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These standards are consumer guarantees that you make when you sell these kinds of products. If you fail to meet one of these guarantees, you must provide the affected customer with a remedy. This remedy could take the form of a:

• replacement;
• refund; or
• repair.

However, you typically do not legally have to give a customer a remedy outside of a situation where you have breached a guarantee, such as when a customer ordered the wrong colour. While you may decide to offer returns in other circumstances, due to the nature of the adult industry and the products you sell, it may not be easy to facilitate returns. Ultimately, you should specify what situations warrant a specific remedy in your online returns policy. For example, you may expressly reject all returns due to a change of mind (such as when a customer decides they no longer need the product) and only offer returns or repairs as required under consumer law. 

Take Care Not to Mislead Your Customers

Another part of consumer law in New Zealand is the Fair Trading Act, which regulates how you can sell to your customers and what you can say. In particular, this law prohibits:

• general misleading conduct;
• false or misleading statements/representations;
• unsubstantiated representations; and
• unfair sales tactics.

Therefore, you need to be truthful in what you say about your products and not mislead your customers.

Being Careful With Advertising

Leading on from the previous point, the Fair Trading Act can also apply to how you advertise your goods. So, you cannot mislead your customers with your advertising. This applies even if you use disclaimers, as an advertisement’s misleading nature is determined by its truthfulness as a whole.

However, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) also has general rules for sexual imagery in advertising. These rules are not necessarily legally binding, but you should be mindful of them if you attempt to advertise outside of your website.

Complying With Customs Rules

As a business owner, if you import your adult products, you must comply with New Zealand Customs’ import rules to get your goods into the country. In particular, Customs has banned any objectionable material. This term refers to anything that describes, depicts, expresses or otherwise deals with certain matters in a way that having that material available in the country would damage the public good. These matters include:

• sex;
• horror;
• crime;
• cruelty; or
• violence.

For clarification, the material would be objectionable if it promotes:

• the exploitation of children;
• bestiality; 
• terrorism;
• extreme violence; or
• sexually coercive violence.

Therefore, you must be extremely careful with the nature of the adult products you try to import and seek legal advice where necessary.

Protect Customer Privacy

Another law that will apply to you is the Privacy Act, which protects people’s personal information in New Zealand. This term refers to any information that could identify a person, including:

• names; 
• shipping addresses;
• financial details;
• IP addresses; or
• email addresses.

Therefore, you need to deal with personal data according to the Privacy Act’s principles. 

Drafting Appropriate Documentation

Finally, you must prepare appropriate online legal documentation for your ecommerce website to best protect your business. This documentation should include:

• terms and conditions; and
• a privacy policy.

Key Takeaways

In New Zealand, you can start an ecommerce store to sell adult products online. However, if you wish to do so, you must comply with New Zealand’s laws that apply to your sales. In particular, this can include consumer law, privacy law, and import restrictions. 

If you want more information or help setting up your adult ecommerce product store, our experienced ecommerce and online business lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0800 005 570 or visit our membership page.

Frequently Asked Questions