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Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act 1990
22Power to obtain information, documents and evidence
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22 Power to obtain information, documents and evidence
(1) Where a person who is an authorised officer for the purposes of a
Part of this Act believes on reasonable grounds that another person
is capable of furnishing information, producing documents or giving
evidence in relation to a possible contravention of that Part, or of
regulations or a code of practice made for the purposes of or
prescribed under that Part, he or she may serve on that other
person a notice under subsection (2).
(2) A notice under this subsection may require the person on whom it is
served:
(a) to furnish in writing to the Commissioner, within the time and
in the manner specified in the notice, any information referred
to in subsection (1) of which that person has knowledge; or
(b) to produce to the Commissioner, in accordance with the
notice, any documents referred to in subsection (1); or
(c) to appear before the Commissioner at a time and place
specified in the notice, and give any evidence referred to in
subsection (1) and produce any documents so referred to.
Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Act 1990 21
(3) Where a document has been produced in response to a notice
under subsection (2), the Commissioner may:
(a) inspect the document and take copies of or extracts from it;
and
(b) if the person otherwise entitled to possession of the document
is supplied as soon as practicable with a copy certified by the
Commissioner to be a true copy, retain possession of the
document for as long as is necessary for the purposes of this
Act.
(4) A certified copy of a document provided under subsection (3)(b) is
admissible in all courts as if it were the original.
(5) Until a certified copy of a document is provided under
subsection (3)(b), the Commissioner shall, at such times and places
as the Commissioner thinks appropriate, permit the person
otherwise entitled to possession of the document, or a person
authorised by that person, to inspect the document and take copies
of or extracts from it.