Introduction Steel & Tube, a major NZ steel producer, has pleaded guilty to 24 representative charges under the Fair Trading Act 1986 for false representations relating to seismic grade SE62 mesh. In the District Court, the company was fined NZ$1,885,000.(1) After both the company and the prosecutor, the Commerce Commission, appealed to the High Court, the fine was increased to NZ$2,009,280.(2) Both parties were given leave to appeal the High Court decision to the Court of Appeal.(3) A central issue on appeal was whether an individual employee's knowledge that the representations being made were false could be attributed to the company for the purposes of sentencing. The Court of Appeal's approach departed from that taken in both the District Court and the High Court.