Kiwi-owned chain PB Tech says it has faced "a bit of a learning curve".

Popular computer chain PB Technologies says the hot water it has found itself in over three separate consumer regulations stemmed from honest mistakes.

General manager Darren Smith said the censures resulted from practices that the company had addressed some ago and the fact they had all come up now was "a timing issue".

The Auckland company pleaded guilty to 14 charges laid by the Commerce Commission of not meeting its requirements with regard to extended warranties, and was also warned about "bait advertising".

PB Tech received a separate warning from Internal Affairs on Monday as a result of it sending marketing emails to customers who had bought products from the company through Trade Me, without first getting their permission.

READ MORE

* PB Tech admits warranty charges, warned for bait advertising

* Charges against Noel Leeming

* Godfreys pleads guilty to extended warranty failures

The charges in relation to extended warranties resulted from the company failing to give customers a summary comparing their rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act with those provided by its extended warranties, between May and November last year.

PB Tech also failed to give customers a copy of the extended warranty agreement and did not tell them about their right to cancel before signing them up.

The company will learn what penalty it will pay when it is sentenced in September.

The rules that govern the information consumers need to be given about extended warranties were tightened up in 2014. But Smith said PB Tech, which owns 11 stores, had not noticed that the rules had changed.

"We believed we were following the disclose requirements but we didn't quite pick up the changes that had happened there.

"It went by us. We would never maliciously go against the law so we obviously didn't know about it."

A Stuff investigation in 2016 found many retailers breaching their obligations with regard to extended warranties.

Vacuum cleaner retailer Godfreys pleaded guilty to breaking the rules in 2016 and the commission laid charges against Noel Leeming in April.

The bait advertising allegation against PB Tech stemmed from an email it sent to 100,000 people in the run to Christmas in 2016 promoting a sale on Apple watches.

The watchdog said the emails were probably a breach of the Fair Trading Act as it only had 14 of the watches in stock.

Internal Affairs anti-spam official Toni Demetriou said the emails PB Tech sent to customers who bought its products through Trade Me breached the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act.

PB Tech had signed an "enforceable undertaking" with the ministry not to repeat the practice, he said.

"The agreement allows us to work with PB Tech on their compliance obligations, but also take the matter to court if the agreed terms are breached."

Smith said PB Tech misunderstood the spam rules as they applied when using Trade Me as an intermediary.

PB Tech had now established a relationship with law firm to make sure it kept up with legal changes, he said. "It has been a bit of a learning curve for us," he said.