Commission files charges against Global Fibre8 and owner

Commission files charges against Global Fibre8 and owner Tangi Tuake

Issued 30 July 2019
Release No. 12

Commission files charges against Global Fibre8 and owner Tangi Tuake
The Commerce Commission has filed a total of eight representative charges against building product company Global Fibre8 Limited and its sole director and shareholder Tangi Tuake.

The charges are all under the Fair Trading Act 1986 and relate to various representations made between July 2015 and August 2018 about K3T, a wall panel system.

The Commission alleges that the defendants represented that a CodeMark certificate issued for K3T in July 2015 certified the compliance of K3T with the New Zealand Building Code, when it did not. The CodeMark Certificate only certified the compliance of K3T with the Building Code of Australia.

The Commission alleges that at no time did Global Fibre8 have New Zealand CodeMark certification.

It is alleged that Global Fibre8 and Mr Tuake made the CodeMark representations:
on the Global Fibre8 website by stating the K3T product “has received certification under the CodeMark scheme” and that “means a guaranteed acceptance by the regulatory bodies”
in a July 2015 letter to licensed sellers of the K3T product by stating “you won’t need to convince your clients with any technical reports”
in a series of TVNZ news stories broadcast in May 2018 by stating “yes it does meet the New Zealand Building Code”
orally to licensed sellers and installers of the K3T product.
The next scheduled appearance is 9am on 20 August in the Auckland District Court.

As this matter is now before the Court the Commission will make no further comment at this time.

Background
CodeMark
The CodeMark scheme is a voluntary product certification scheme under which products may be certified as meeting the requirements of the New Zealand Building Code or the Building Code of Australia.

The CodeMark scheme operates both in New Zealand and Australia. However, products must be separately certified in each country because there are differences in the two countries’ building codes.

New Zealand CodeMark certificates are product certificates issued under the Building Act. This means that building consent authorities (mainly territorial councils) must accept a CodeMark certificate as evidence of compliance with the New Zealand Building Code (provided the product is used in accordance with any conditions defined on the certificate).

An Australian CodeMark certificate is not a product certificate under the Building Act.

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