Foreign retail causes few gripes

Kiwi shoppers made more complaints about local online traders than overseas websites to the Commerce Commission last year.

However, retailers claim that shows the rules are working and New Zealand consumers are better off buying local.

A Bank of New Zealand report said domestic online retailers accounted for about 58 per cent of online sales, but the commission said in a report published yesterday morning that complaints about domestic online retailers vastly outnumbered those made about foreign ones.

Of the 450 complaints the commission received that related to online companies, 80 per cent were about domestic suppliers and only 13 per cent about foreign traders.

The location of the rest could not be determined, it said.

The commission said the low number of complaints about overseas traders was ‘‘unexpected’’, as buying from overseas potentially increased the risk to consumers.

But Retail NZ spokesman Greg Harford said the findings showed consumers were better protected if they bought local and that ‘‘the system is working’’.

‘‘I think most people probably wouldn’t look to go to the Commerce Commission if they had a real issue with an overseas online business because even if the Commerce Commission was inclined to look at it, it doesn’t have the ability to deal with it really,’’ he said.

The commission said its ‘‘enforcement options’’ applied to both domestic and international traders. But it acknowledged in its report that ‘‘the practicality of applying these offshore is less effective’’.