Homeopathic Products - fair trading
B. White made this Official Information request to Commerce Commission
The request was successful.
From: B. White
Dear Commerce Commission,
Can you please tell me:
1. How many complaints to the commerce commission about homeopathic products in the last 5 years.
2. The number of these complaints which resulted in warnings, or other enforcement actions.
3. The number of self initiated (initiated by the commission or another government agency) investigations into homeopathic products in the last 5 years.
4. The number of these investigations which resulted in warnings, or other enforcement actions.
5. If any guidelines exist (internally or public) in relation to the standards of evidence required for producers of supplements and or homeopathic remedies to not be considered by the commission as misleading in relation to claims made in selling these products.
6. If in the commissions opinion, the act of selling products by pharmacies that have no scientific basis to their claims is misleading to consumers.
Yours faithfully,
B. White
From: Commerce Commission Enquiries
Commerce Commission
Thank you for the information you have provided. We use reports like yours to identify and take action on the things which are causing the most harm to New Zealand consumers. We appreciate you taking the time to make this report to us.
REPORTING A BUSINESS OR PERSON
If you have contacted us to report a business or person that you believe has breached consumer and/or competition law, your report will be assessed according to the Commission’s enforcement criteria<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/the-commission...>.
Following an assessment the Commission will decide whether to take further action. We are not a complaint handling body and we do not investigate every report made to us. We must prioritise what we investigate to ensure we are using our resources efficiently.
The information you provided will remain in our database and may be referred to for future assessments of similar conduct. We will also use your report to support analysis of consumer harm as part of our annual Consumer Issues report. You can find our annual Consumer Issues report<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/the-commission...> on our website.
Please note that we will only contact you again if we need more information.
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If you have contacted us to report a dispute that you are having with a business, please be aware that the Commission is not a dispute resolution service. There are a number of other organisations that may be able to assist you in resolving your individual dispute. Please refer to the “Who else can help<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/the-commission...>” page on our website. If you wish to resolve your dispute with a business you should take your own legal advice as to what your options are. You should not wait for the Commission’s actions (if any) to be completed.
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Our website provides information about your rights as a consumer and information about consumer and competition law. Please take a look at our fact sheets (Fair Trading<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/fair-trading/f...>, Competition<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/business-compe...>, Consumer Credit<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/consumer-credi...> or Regulated Industries<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/regulated-indu...>).
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Your complaint will be read, logged and assigned to a manager to answer. The manager will make contact with you, and may in some cases seek further information. Please refer to the Complaints Policy<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/the-commission...> on our website for details on how we handle complaints about us.
This email may contain information that is confidential or legally privileged. If you have received this email in error please immediately notify the sender and delete the email, without using it in any way. The views presented in this email may not be those of the Commission.
From: OIA Requests
Commerce Commission
Dear B White
This email is to acknowledge that we have received your request for
information under the Official Information Act 1982.
You can expect a response to your request within 20 working days, on or
before 18 April 2017.
Ngā mihi
Lynette
Lynette Davidson-Adams
OIA Coordinator
Commerce Commission | Te Komihana Tauhokohoko
44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand
[1][email address]
[2]twitter-bird-16x16 Follow us on Twitter [3]@NZComCom
This email may contain information that is confidential or legally
privileged. If you have received this email in error please immediately
notify the sender and delete the email, without using it in any way. The
views presented in this email may not be those of the Commission.
References
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From: OIA Requests
Commerce Commission
Dear B White
This email is to acknowledge that we have received your request for
information under the Official Information Act 1982.
You can expect a response to your request within 20 working days, on or
before 13 April 2017.
Ngā mihi
Lynette
Lynette Davidson-Adams
OIA Coordinator
Commerce Commission | Te Komihana Tauhokohoko
44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand
[1][email address]
[2]twitter-bird-16x16Follow us on Twitter [3]@NZComCom
This email may contain information that is confidential or legally
privileged. If you have received this email in error please immediately
notify the sender and delete the email, without using it in any way. The
views presented in this email may not be those of the Commission.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.twitter.com/nzcomcom
From: OIA Requests
Commerce Commission
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2853826 OIA 16.133 Homeopathic Products Response.PDF.pdf
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Dear B White
I attach the Commerce Commission’s response to you Official Information
Act request.
Ngâ mihi
Lynette
Lynette Gollop-Davidson
OIA Coordinator
Commerce Commission | Te Komihana Tauhokohoko
44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand
[1][email address]
[2]twitter-bird-16x16Follow us on Twitter [3]@NZComCom
References
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1. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.twitter.com/nzcomcom
From: B. White
Hi there,
Thank you for your response so far.
Please let me further clarify question 6 and re-submit the question as I am not entirely satisfied with the response given.
I am going to attempt to clarify this by way of example. A pharmacy selling "rescue remedy" a homeopathic product which is generally accepted to have no efficacy level beyond a placebo response. In fact all homeopathic products by their nature are dubious in their efficacy. In my question I didn't single out a single product or even homeopathy, but for the sake of the rest of my explanation I will assume that the commission agrees that there is no reasonable grounds for a seller of this product to think the efficacy of this remedy is above placebo levels.
A store calling itself a pharmacy (be it physical or online) would in most consumers minds mean a store owned or run by a pharmacist (or a group of pharmacists).
A pharmacist is someone with medical training and I believe that consumers expect that a pharmacist would apply scientific reasoning to the selection of products stocked in the pharmacy and only select effective products. I also believe a reasonable consumer would also expect that if they are paying for a treatment or remedy, the efficacy of that treatment/remedy would be more than that of a placebo.
Unless a explicit statement is made that the product has no efficacy above a placebo response. In this case I believe that the pharmacy is misleading consumers by stocking the product on its shelves as there is an implicit representation that a pharmacist has selected the products on the shelves for their efficacy.
On the basis of the above - In the commissions opinion, is the act of selling products by pharmacies that have no scientific basis to their claims misleading to consumers?
Yours sincerely,
B. White
From: OIA Requests
Commerce Commission
Thank you for contacting the New Zealand Commerce Commission.
If your request is for information under the Official Information Act (OIA) we will respond to it within 20 working days.
If your enquiry is not a request for information under the OIA, please contact our Contact Centre, on 0800 943 600 or [Commerce Commission request email]<mailto:[Commerce Commission request email]>
OIA Co-ordinator
Information Systems | Organisational Performance
Commerce Commission l Te Komihana Tauhokohoko
44 The Terrace l PO Box 2351 l Wellington 6140 l New Zealand
E: [email address]<mailto:[email address]>
From: OIA Requests
Commerce Commission
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Download
2873110 OIA 16.150 Homeopathic Products Response.PDF.pdf
412K
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View as HTML
Dear B White
I attach the Commerce Commission’s response to your Official Information
Act request.
Ngâ mihi
Lynette
Lynette Gollop-Davidson
OIA Coordinator
Commerce Commission | Te Komihana Tauhokohoko
44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand
[1][Commerce Commission request email]
[2]twitter-bird-16x16Follow us on Twitter [3]@NZComCom
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[Commerce Commission request email]
3. http://www.twitter.com/nzcomcom
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