A finance company has been fined for its part in the sale of water filters to customers who were wrongly told their water was toxic.
Auckland creditor Tiny Terms Ltd financed 21,523 rent-to-own agreements each worth $1595.
The agreements were for customers who bought water filters from Love Springs sales representatives, who told them their water was dangerous.
Tiny Terms has been fined $77,200 for not giving its clients enough information about the two-year agreements, then trying to enforce them when it had no right to do so.
The Commerce Commission's head of investigations Ritchie Hutton says customers were scared into the contracts by false information that their local water could cause cancer, birth defects and miscarriages.
