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Firearms Category Changes

We’re making changes to our firearms categories

Recently, there has been a conversation going on about the sale of firearms in New Zealand. As with anything being traded on the site, our goal is to provide a community where buyers and sellers can come together and trade firearms safely, knowing that we’ve got their back if anything should crop up along the way.

We’re constantly looking for ways to make things better, and we’ve been working hard behind the scenes with Police for some time to increase the safety of trades conducted through our firearms community.

From early September, we'll be asking Trade Me members for the name and number on a firearms licence before allowing a Trade Me member to bid, ask questions, click ‘Buy Now’ or continue with the purchase of a firearms listing.

We'll use this information to verify that the buyer has a legitimate and current firearms licence, and that those details match their Trade Me membership. Trade Me will send a request containing the member’s name and supplied firearms licence number to Police via our API. Police will provide a ‘Yes/No’ response, so we can establish whether the licence is valid and belongs to that member.

Many API consumers already require members to enter their licence details before allowing a Trade Me member to bid, ask questions, click ‘Buy Now’ or confirm a purchase.

Further, we'll be updating the existing declaration displayed to members when they enter their licence details. We note that some API consumers do not currently display this declaration. It's important to us that members who use the firearms categories understand that certain obligations exist, that Trade Me will use the information they supply to verify licences are valid and current, and that Trade Me may release transactional information to Police under a production order or valid Privacy Act request. Trade Me's Developer terms and conditions require users with API access to display legal or consumer notices to members where Trade Me displays those notices.

What do I need to do?

If you currently allow firearms or ammunition purchases, you will already ask for a licence number.

Where you currently ask for a licence number, you will also need to:

You will also need to ensure the updated declaration is displayed.

Change to affected endpoints

The affected API endpoints will be updated to request a FirearmsLicenceHolder with three child fields

In xml, the change will look like this: <FirearmsLicenceHolder> <FirstName/> <MiddleNames/> <LastName/> </FirearmsLicenceHolder>

Affected endpoints

These API endpoints require firearms licence information if the category is shotguns, rifles or ammunition, and are affected by these changes.

Place a bid

Buy an auction using Buy Now

Respond to a Fixed Price Offer

Post a question or comment on a listing

Declaration

We’ll also require any API consumers who allow firearms or ammunition purchases to start displaying the following privacy disclosure wherever they are asking for a licence number and licence name.

I confirm that I am aware of my obligations under the Arms Act 1983. I understand that my name and firearms licence number will be provided to Police to check my licence's validity, and that transaction details may be provided to Police in accordance with Trade Me's Privacy policy.

When is this changing

We’re planning to make these changes on 13/09/17, and request that you make updates by this deadline.

We are adding the new fields, along with the calls to the Police API, on 13/09/17

If you have any questions, get in touch with us at api@trademe.co.nz