Commerce Commission files civil proceedings against Harmoney over platform fees

Friday 25th August 2017

The Commerce Commission has filed civil proceedings against Harmoney Corp, claiming the peer-to-peer lender's platform fees are unreasonable.

The antitrust regulator today filed papers in the High Court in Auckland accusing Harmoney of breaching the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003, which prohibits lenders from charging unreasonable credit fees.

The commission claims the platform fee is a credit fee and is unreasonable, and wants a declaration to that effect, as well as compensation for affected borrowers, it said in a statement.

The civil suit comes a year after Harmoney said it would plead guilty to misleading consumers over pre-approval letters sent in various forms to more than 500,000 New Zealanders between October 2014 and April 2015, which misled recipients by telling them they had been pre-approved to borrow money from Harmoney. The peer-to-peer lender was ultimately fined about $293,000 over that breach.

(BusinessDesk)

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