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Consumer protection

Consumer Care Obligations

Mandating consumer care protections to ensure consumers receive a consistent and supportive standard of service.

  • Consumers
  • Retail

    • Overview

    We have published the Consumer Care Obligations, mandating key protections for electricity consumers in New Zealand.

    Two key protections – prohibiting retailers from disconnecting customers they know to be medically dependent and requiring any fees or charges to be reasonable - took effect from 1 January 2025. The remaining obligations took effect from 1 April 2025 to ensure retailers had the necessary operational changes in place to implement the new requirements for their customers.

    We encouraged all retailers to read the Consumer Care Obligations - Retailer guidance and ensure processes were in place to implement the Obligations effectively on time.

    Timeline

    Past activity

    Project background

    In April 2020, following a recommendation from the Electricity Price Review and industry feedback, we reviewed our guidelines for retailers on arrangements to assist medically dependent and vulnerable consumers. There had been significant change in New Zealand’s electricity industry and the existing guidelines were no longer fit for purpose. Our review led to the replacement of the medically dependent consumer and vulnerable consumer guidelines with new Consumer Care Guidelines.

    In 2023 a review of the voluntary Consumer Care Guidelines revealed inconsistent implementation across the market. We worked closely with industry and consumer groups and decided to introduce mandatory Consumer Care Obligations from 2025 to ensure consistent care and protections for all residential consumers.

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