New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner has criticized credit reporting agency Veda Advantage for charging what it said were unreasonable and unlawful fees for urgent requests for information from consumers.Commissioner John Edwards said people making urgent requests for their credit information were likely to be in a vulnerable position.Veda was obliged to provide free access for reports issued 20 days after the request, but the law allowed it to charge a reasonable fee for urgent requests, Edwards said in a statement after an investigation.Veda charged NZ$51.95 for urgent credit information requests and in return provided standard credit information, a credit score and explanatory notes relating to the credit information, he said.Edwards said he had not taken the step of "naming" Veda lightly, but wanted to draw the issue to the attention of consumers.He said Veda was not legally entitled to charge for some of the aspects that make up its charge for urgent requests, given the Privacy Act required any reasonable fee to be nominal "and the company's charge exceeds this by a large margin."Edwards said the Commission was now considering whether to broaden its investigation to other credit reporting agencies.He said he had asked Veda to agree to only charge for the actual cost of putting the requested information into a format to be delivered to the consumer and then delivering it to the consumer, and to stop charging for other aspects of the request. "At the date of publishing this report, Veda had not provided the Commissioner with the assurances sought," Edwards said, adding Veda disagreed with the Commission's interpretation of what the law allowed. Edwards said he was now considering whether to amend the Credit Reporting Privacy Code or to refer the case to the Director of Human Rights for him to consider whether to file proceedings in the Human Rights Review Tribunal.