The vaccine pass was required to enter hospitality venues, community, sport and faith-based gatherings, as a result of the COVID-19 Protection Framework having come into effect on 3 December 2021.

[4] As part of the contract, MATTR has developed the NZ COVID Pass specification,[5] which uses Elliptic-curve cryptography and Concise Binary Object Representation to encode person's credentials in a QR code and assert that the person is considered vaccinated.

[6] On 23 November 2021, Hipkins confirmed that once the My Vaccine Pass has been downloaded, an Internet connection is not required to operate it.

[2] Under the Government's COVID-19 Protection Framework, the My Vaccine Pass is compulsory for entering a range of public settings including events, hospitality (cafes, restaurants and bars), close contact businesses such as hairdressers and beauticians, retailers, sporting events, and faith-based gatherings.

[1][2] The launch of the My Vaccine Pass was complicated by the "My COVID Record" website's cyber defence systems mistaking the large number of visitor requests for distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.

[10] In addition, New Zealand International Students Association national president Afiqah Ramizi expressed concerns that My Vaccine Pass system only accepted New Zealand and Australian identity documents, making it hard for foreign passport holders to obtain the vaccine certificates.

The Government plans to launch the NZ Pass Verifier app the following week for businesses and event holders.

[13] On 23 March 2022, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the Government would eliminate My Vaccine Pass requirements from 11:59 pm on 4 April 2022 as part of a series of changes to the "traffic light system."

This fraud was complicated by the lack of a legal requirement that the vaccine pass be checked against a form of photo identification.