Meal-kit company HelloFresh has been fined $845,000 by the Auckland District Court after pleading guilty to five Fair Trading Act breaches for misleading former customers during a cold-call campaign between February 2022 and July 2023.
The Commerce Commission found that HelloFresh made over 1.2 million calls, reactivating 78,000 dormant subscriptions without clear consent by offering “vouchers” that automatically resumed deliveries.
The court held the company’s agents used ambiguous language and “glossed over customer resistance,” with some complainants left out of pocket or referred to debt collection. HelloFresh argued its staff went “off-script” but admitted its call-centre management was inadequate. The court reduced the fine from a $1.3 million starting point for early guilty pleas and the company’s lack of prior convictions.
