The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister shares the Prime Minister's view that The Safety Warehouse should apologise for its controversial cash drop event.
The work gear company on Saturday held an event at Auckland's Aotea Square where it was expected to give away $100,000. But many attendees were left disappointed after receiving discount vouchers disguised as fake $5 notes and a scuffle subsequently broke out.
The Safety Warehouse maintains that real funds were thrown to the crowd and stands by the promotional event.
However, Jacinda Ardern on Monday said the event "caused harm" and called on the company to apologise.
Asked if he shared the Prime Minister's sentiment, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark on Tuesday said it wasn't a pretty situation.
"Yeah, I think that what has happened there is not something that looks very pretty. There are mechanisms in place if people want to take a complaint there in that situation and on the face of it, it looks pretty untidy," he told reporters.
Clark is confident current consumer laws are adequate to deal with situations like this and said making a complaint to the Commerce Commission was the right avenue for someone to take if they feel they have been dealt with unfairly.
The Commerce Commission has received four complaints about the promotion.
"We are in the process of assessing those complaints and have formed no view yet on whether the promotion of the event may have breached the Fair Trading Act," a spokesperson said.
"In general, we note again that the main message of any advertising or promotion must be accurate. Advertisers/promoters cannot use fine print to correct an overall impression that is misleading."
Clark said it was ultimately a "disappointing" situation that he suspects the company is regretting. In general, he said people should "breathe very deeply before misleading their customers".
"Customers don't take this kind of thing well and I think that is quite understandable. It's always disappointing and perhaps a little bit foolish when people take their customers for granted."
In a statement on Sunday, The Safety Warehouse said the cash drop had been "unfairly characterised as an event with fake money" and that "real funds were given away as anticipated".
"The vouchers that were also presented at the event were in addition to the cash that was given away. We never could have expected the inclusion of the vouchers would have created such hostility and a misunderstood narrative."
It said the actions of a small group ruined the "family-friendly" event for others and that there was no "intent to deprive, mislead or embarrass" anyone.
Some of the fake $5 notes dispersed on Saturday were used at a Hamilton bar later that evening, according to Outback Inn owner John Lawrenson.
"We didn't even notice until the end of the night when the manager was counting up the tills and just noticed that some of the $5 notes were slightly different from the others, and as it turned out, the money from the cash dump had managed to make its way down to Hamilton and had been used to buy a few drinks," he told Newshub.
The Reserve Bank on Monday told Newshub publishing anything that looks like a genuine bank note or could be mistaken for the real thing may be against the law.
Police are reviewing the event.
