By Vanessa Pratley
Investigative Journalist | Kaipūrongo Whakatewhatewha
In November 2025, YouKnow. Clothing, a trending Aotearoa streetwear brand, posted a video on Instagram. It showed people gathered in a dark room around a central figure, ‘the chef’, and advertised a limited-time, Black Friday sale – 48 hours only.
“Is everything up to 70% off?” the chef asked. “Yes chef!” the group replied in unison.
A Consumer NZ supporter, who preferred not to be named, sent us a tip-off about the sale. The supporter suspected it was misleading messaging, stating only some items had discounts, while others remained at full price.
If you heard that everything was “up to 70% off”, you’d expect each product offered to have at least some discount, right? However, when we looked at the sale, we found the supporter was correct. When you shop a sale, expecting to find discounts on every item only to find some are still full price, it’s understandable to feel like you’ve been baited. That’s exactly how the supporter felt.
But is it bait advertising? Or is it simply misleading?
The legal definition of bait advertising
The Fair Trading Act (FTA) defines bait advertising as a trader advertising goods or services that they can’t supply to get people into their shop or online sale. This is illegal in Aotearoa New Zealand. However, if the business is upfront and clear about the good being in short supply or only on sale for a limited time, it’s probably not bait advertising.
Bait advertising is just one of a handful of unfair practices specifically prohibited in the FTA, alongside pyramid schemes and referral selling.
‘Bait and switch’ is a type of bait advertising. It hasn’t been specifically defined in New Zealand law, but an excerpt from a 1995 volume of the Journal of Political Economy on the subject explains it in this way. Imagine you see a brand-new car advertised in the Sunday paper. It costs just under $22,000, so you decide you’d like to buy it. When you arrive at the show room, you’re told it has sold. But the car salesman just so happens to have a similar, albeit more expensive, model still available.
So, ‘bait and switch’ is when a business advertises a product or service without any intention of supplying it and instead offers an alternative that is often more expensive than the original product or service.
Even though you’re not forced to purchase the more expensive option, we still think this practice is unfair and is worth a complaint to the Commerce Commission (see ‘Complaints snapshot’).
What’s reasonable under the Consumer Guarantees Act?
Under the law, if a business advertises goods for a certain price, it’s got to be able to supply those goods for a reasonable time and in reasonable quantities if it wants to avoid liability for bait advertising. What’s ‘reasonable’ depends on the circumstances. For example, it would be reasonable for a secondhand clothing store to have only one pair of size 40, blue sneakers in stock, but this would be unreasonable if it were an online shoe retailer.
In 2018, the Commerce Commission filed charges against computing and IT retailer PB Tech for failing to disclose information about its extended warranties and warned it for bait advertising. The commission alleged the company promoted Apple watches at a special sales price to about 100,000 people over email but had only 14 watches available at that price.
“PB Tech admitted it knew the watches would sell out, and two complainants told us they sold out in the first few minutes of the sale. Businesses must … have reasonable grounds for believing they can supply the goods in reasonable quantities when they advertise them for sale,” said then commissioner Anna Rawlings when charges were filed.
Bait advertising complaints to the Commerce Commission
We asked the Commerce Commission in November 2025 about recent bait advertising complaints, and it said most in the past year had resulted in no further action.
Vanessa Horne, the commission’s then general manager of competition, fair trading and credit, said “Since 1 January 2025, the commission has received 243 concerns related to alleged bait advertising. These concerns cover multiple sectors, such as retail and restaurants / food delivery.”
Horne explained the commission takes all concerns seriously but can’t take action on every one.
“While the commission cannot investigate every concern, each one is logged and assessed. We consider our enforcement criteria and are also guided by our enforcement priorities when determining whether to take a concern further,” she said.
If you spot an advertisement that might breach the FTA, you can complain to the commission online on their website.
What are the rules about advertising?
The FTA deals with all advertising wrongdoings, not just bait advertising, and prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct, among other things. If found in breach of this act, a business could be liable for a fine of up to $600,000. And this upper limit looks set to increase substantially (up to $5 million) in the near future, with the government aiming to introduce an amendment bill in early 2026.
But there’s a catch: it’s expensive and time consuming to prove a business has breached the FTA, and some fines have been so meagre some businesses have begun to treat them as a standard cost of doing business. Helpfully, there’s another avenue you can take, and it’s free.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is a self-regulatory body for the advertising industry in Aotearoa. It sets standards for responsible advertising and runs an advertising complaints process.
One-third of complaints to the ASA in 2024 focused on advertisements on digital platforms. As much as 45% of those advertisements were on social media. And the most complained-about issue? Misleading advertising, raised in 41% of complaints.
“While our work in complaints is more likely to generate headlines, it is the ASA codes that define what is OK in ad content and placement and what is not,” Hilary Souter, ASA chief executive, wrote in the ASA’s 2024 annual report.
The most relevant code the ASA regulates is the Advertising Standards Code, though it also deals with standards for children’s, alcohol and therapeutic product advertising.
The code reflects the FTA and sets out a range of principles advertisers should adhere to. One of the most important is truthful representation. Advertisements must not mislead or be likely to mislead, deceive or confuse consumers, abuse their trust or exploit their lack of knowledge.
Souter said, “Advertisers must be able to meet any reasonable demand created by their advertising” and “advertisements for sales must not exaggerate the savings or how many items are on sale.”
While YouKnow. Clothing’s advertising probably doesn’t meet the strict definition of bait advertising, we think the company’s video advertisement likely to be misleading a breach of the FTA.
A spokesperson from YouKnow. Clothing apologised for the confusion.
“The inclusion of "everything" was an error in the dialogue and was not picked up in the editing/content review. That is our mistake. It was not our intent to mislead customers, as we did have new full price product available/dropping throughout the period of the Black Friday sale which we advertised openly.”
If you spot an advertisement that might breach the advertising standards codes, you can lay a complaint with the ASA on their website. It will assess your complaint and can take a range of actions. These include referring the complaint to the complaints board, getting the advertiser to remove the ad or stop using it, or taking no further action. You can also lodge a complaint with the Commerce Commission.
How to avoid getting caught out by advertising claims
So, how can you protect yourself from getting caught up by advertising claims?
Look past the hype: Just because a business says everything is on sale, that’s not necessarily the case. Look past the hype and sales language and double-check the price listed in your cart before you hit the final ‘buy now’.
Pay by card: Paying by debit or credit card is the easiest way to protect yourself. If you’re charged more than you expected, or something goes wrong, you can ask your bank for a chargeback. Make sure you keep a receipt or proof of purchase.
Ask for a rain check: When a business offers a great deal, but stock runs out quickly through no fault of the business, sometimes the business might offer a rain check. Once new stock arrives, it’ll sell that stock at the special price it initially offered, even though the sale may be over. Not every business will offer a rain check (it’s not a legal requirement), but it’s worth asking about.
Know your rights: Even if something is on sale, your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act still apply. You’re entitled to a repair, replacement or refund if the product isn’t of acceptable quality, suitable for its intended use or as described.
