The Commerce Commission has today stated that a complaint lodged against the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association Inc has merit.

The statement came after a complaint lodged in January was assessed against the evidence provided to the commission by a number of individuals.

The complaint had been made as many RV dealers had been telling RV purchasers they had to join the NZMCA to order to become Certified self contained and that only N.Z.M.C.A members could be certified.

This situation has been ongoing for a number of years and it was alleged N.Z.M.C.A had taken no corrective action even after being made aware of it. Evidence included statements from a number of RV purchasers as well as copies of adverts from Trademe.

The matter of Authority under the Self Containment Standard was also raised due to N.Z.M.C.A’s ongoing publicity that suggests they are the authority under the standard.

Evidence included screen shots of N.Z.M.C.A’s website stating the Testing officer must be approved by them, as well as publicly available policy statements about the future of the Self Containment Standard and what it will look like in 2025. Considerable concern was raised due to signage provided by Rotorua District Council saying they only accepted self containment certificates issued by N.Z.M.C.A.

The decision comes after expos’e on the Standard being used as an agenda by N.Z.M.C.A and claims that the standard is little more than a scam which has achieved nothing of value to Freedom camping in over 25 years.

New Zealand Standards are currently in receipt of an Ombudsman complaint over the Standard and its ongoing use particularly as the Standard as been promoted as a limitation that can be used against all Freedom Campers while only being available to the small minority in RV’s. This raises concerns about the Freedom Camping Acts requirement for any restriction to be the most appropriate and proportionate way of addressing a problem as well as issues of compliance with NZ’s Bill of Rights.

https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/2006/NZMCA_Commerce.pdf

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