New South Wales Consolidated Acts

FAIR TRADING ACT 1987 - SECT 20

20 Power to obtain information, documents and evidence

(1) This section applies only to a person who is, on reasonable grounds, believed by the Director-General to be capable of giving information, producing documents or giving evidence in relation to:

(a) a possible contravention of this Act or any other legislation administered by the Minister, or

(b) a matter that may lead to the reference of a question to the Products Safety Committee or an advisory committee, or

(c) a matter that is the subject of a complaint received by the Director-General under section 9 (1) (c), or

(d) a matter that is the subject of an investigation by the Director-General under section 9 (2).

(2) An investigator or the Director-General may, by notice in writing served on a person to whom this section applies, require the person:

(a) to give an investigator or the Director-General, by writing signed by the person (or, in the case of a body corporate, by a competent officer of the body corporate) and within the time and in the manner specified in the notice, any information referred to in subsection (1) of which the person has knowledge,

(b) to produce to an investigator or the Director-General, in accordance with the notice, any documents referred to in subsection (1), or

(c) to appear before an investigator, the Director-General or an authorised person at a time and place specified in the notice and give either orally or in writing any evidence referred to in subsection (1) and produce any documents so referred to.

(3) A person shall not:

(a) refuse or fail to comply with a notice under this section to the extent that the person is capable of complying with it, or

(b) in purported compliance with such a notice, knowingly give information or produce a document, or give evidence, that is false or misleading.

Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units.

(4) A person is not excused from giving information or producing a document, or from giving evidence, in response to a notice under this section on the ground that the information, document or evidence may tend to incriminate the person.

(5) Any information, document or evidence obtained from a person in response to a notice under this section is inadmissible against the person in criminal proceedings other than proceedings for a contravention of subsection (3).

(6) Despite section 8 of this Act, the Director-General may only delegate his or her functions under this section to a person who is an officer.

(7) If requested to do so by a person required to comply with a notice given under this section by a delegate of the Director-General, the delegate must provide the person with evidence of that person’s identity and evidence of the delegation that enables the delegate to give the notice.