Competition and regulatory
13 September 2010
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Chapman Tripp comments on cases and issues in the competition, regulatory & antitrust space.
02 March 2012
Liaising with your practice group colleagues and your peers is fundamental to ensuring New Zealanders receive excellent healthcare. But being a health professional providing important and indispensible services does not immunise you from the law governing competition in business.
15 November 2011
Doing Business in New Zealand is a publication designed to provide the prospective investor with an introductory guide to the New Zealand legal framework as it applies to business. This chapter discusses competition law; consumer protection; contract law; public protection; and creditor protection.
15 November 2011
Haere mai is Māori for welcome and New Zealand is one of the most open economies in the world. But there are rules and regulations that will apply, and we are familiar with them. This publication is designed to provide the prospective investor with an introductory guide to the New Zealand legal framework as it applies to business.
15 November 2011
Knowing what your competitors are up to helps inform your business strategy – but did you know that there are some things that you shouldn’t do in conjunction with your competitors – and which, if you did them, could expose you to large fines (and if a proposed new law is passed, to possible imprisonment)?
14 November 2011
If New Zealand manages to criminalise cartel conduct without inhibiting legitimate collaboration, Australia and those other jurisdictions which marched into this legislatively tricky terrain ahead of us will be able to take a lot of the credit.
Yes, our policy-makers are learning from your mistakes.
19 October 2011
The ACCC had a recent win in a “cover pricing” case against a construction company and its managing director: the Federal Court found the company broke the law in providing a cover price to a competing bidder. The director was personally liable as an accessory to the breach. This development is especially important in New Zealand because the Commerce Commission has signalled it is keeping a close eye on construction industry bidding practices. All construction companies, and their directors and managers, should be aware of the risks of cover pricing.
19 October 2011
The cartel criminalisation legislation introduced to the House last week proposes a phased approach in which criminal sanctions will be delayed two years to allow the market to get used to the new regime.
This Brief Counsel looks at The Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.
22 June 2011
Swapping information with competitors has always been fraught with legal risk – and is about to get riskier in Australia and, potentially, in New Zealand if our Government follows Australia’s lead.
This Brief Counsel looks at the proposed Australian reforms, summarises the current position in New Zealand and sets out some good practice guidelines to help businesses stay on the right side of the law.
20 June 2011
The Government has taken another step toward the criminalisation of cartels with the release last week of draft legislation.
Submissions close on 22 July, 2011.
17 June 2011
Chapman Tripp Partner Matt Sumpter has won this year’s J.F. Northey Memorial Book Award at the Legal Research Foundation Annual Writing Awards.
13 September 2010
The Commerce Commission has produced guidelines to assist purchasers to recognise and combat bid rigging.
01 September 2010
The Supreme Court’s judgment today in The Commerce Commission v Telecom on Telecom’s 1999 dial-up internet package definitively confirms the test for liability under section 36 of the Commerce Act 1986. This Brief Counsel draws the salient points from the decision.
26 August 2010
The proposed criminalisation of cartels makes the optimal design of competition law policy and enforcement an even more significant issue than it might otherwise be.This paper explores what will no doubt be a controversial proposition.
28 April 2010
The Supreme Court has established that the Commerce Act does not extend to overseas conduct by a person who isn’t resident or carrying on business in New Zealand, except in particularly limited circumstances.
22 February 2010
Grant David talks to Linda Clark on MED's proposal to criminalise cartels.
03 February 2010
In our view, there are questions around whether the case for criminalisation has been made. But irrespective of whether New Zealand does decide to criminalise, the consultations provide the platform for a robust and thorough debate on the design of the current provisions, including how we define a cartel and what conduct should be exempted. Submissions are due by 31 March.
14 December 2009
Next month, in American Needle Inc v National Football League Inc (No 08/661), the US Supreme Court is expected to revisit its earlier cases on joint ventures and the extent to which they should be protected under competition law.
14 December 2009
It was news that was hard to miss. The cost of groceries in New Zealand has risen 42.5% over the last ten years, giving us some of the most expensive food in the OECD. Only South Korea has experienced higher price rises. And, as always, the questions are who’s to blame and what can be done?
14 December 2009
Get done for engaging in a cartel in Australia now and you could finish up behind bars. Next year, our politicians will be debating whether we should introduce a similar regime here. Already we have serious penalties under the Commerce Act and a Commerce Commission with an itchy trigger finger. Cartels are in the regulatory gun – but do businesses truly know what sorts of behaviours could expose them to risk?
14 December 2009
For businesses in financial difficulty a prompt sale to a competitor is often the best way forward, allowing the business to exit the market and recover some of its losses in the process. In such circumstances, the merger parties may need to rely upon the ‘failing firm’ argument to avoid falling foul of the Commerce Act.
14 December 2009
2009 saw the prohibition on misuse of market power (section 36 of the Commerce Act) regain some prominence in competition law litigation. Iconic for its difficulty and controversy more than for its utility, some aspects of section 36 were confirmed and some new boundaries explored.
14 December 2009
When politicians look to make progress on the alignment of trans-Tasman laws toward a single economic market, for some reason competition law is seen as low hanging fruit. Perhaps this is because “common sense” would indicate that the principles of competition should be the same on both sides of the Tasman. But the lesson from 2009 is that we need to be careful about following the Australian example.
04 December 2009
The Supreme Court judgment in Commerce Commission v Carter Holt Harvey provides important guidance on the applicable limitation period for civil claims brought for breach of the Fair Trading Act 1986. This Brief Counsel looks at the Supreme Court’s decision, how it has clarified the law, and what it means for claimants and defendants in Fair Trading Act litigation.
08 July 2009
If you thought secret cameras in the ceiling, tracking devices under the car and bugs in the phones were the preserve of drug barons, you're reckoning without the Search and Surveillance Bill introduced to the House last week.
06 March 2009
Proud of your company’s environmental credentials and wanting to brand yourselves as “green”? You will need to be aware of the standards of behaviour the Commerce Commission expects in this area – and has set down in two sets of guidelines.
06 March 2009
A recent decision of the Auckland District Court shows the courts' increasing willingness to impose large penalties for breaches of the Fair Trading Act in cases where the defendant is a large corporate, and there is a perceived need to deter future breaches. In this case total fines of more than $200,000 were imposed in respect of a number of unrelated charges concerning misleading advertising/labelling of consumer products.
06 March 2009
A recent internal report reveals the Commerce Commission's view of how competitors should deal with each other to avoid falling foul of the Commerce Act.
09 February 2009
Chapman Tripp partner Grant David believes competition law and the Commission has lost its way and he’s calling for a fundamental review. He talks to Linda Clark.
05 February 2009
If the Government is serious about disciplining its spending and stopping growth in bureaucracy, as Treasury recommends, the on-going relevance of the Commerce Commission must become a matter for immediate debate.
18 August 2008
Woolworths announced it will seek leave to appeal the recent Court of Appeal judgment in The Warehouse litigation. The Court of Appeal affirmed the Commerce Commission's decision to decline a clearance to either the Woolworths or Foodstuffs supermarket chains to purchase The Warehouse.
01 August 2008
The Commerce Amendment Bill fundamentally reforms the regulatory control provisions in the Commerce Act 1986, with the aim of establishing a more credible and certain control regime in markets where competition is not possible.
07 July 2008
Meter markets now include smart metering technology, opening up a growing area of differentiation and competitive conduct between energy firms, which can involve competition law issues, says Gary Hughes of Chapman Tripp.
01 July 2008
Appeal Court puts liability cat amongst merger pigeons; Bundling discounts; 0867: Remembering dial-up, and reinforcing the counterfactual test.
01 July 2008
Some recent developments have brought greater certainty to the question of how bundle discounts should be treated in competition law. In particular, the Commerce Commission has set out the way it will analyse bundle discounts.
01 July 2008
Around the turn of the century, the Commission claimed that Telecom’s decision to introduce a free internet access number range (0867 xxx xxx), while implementing a charge for residential local number dial-up access to the Internet, was a breach of s36 of the Commerce Act.
02 May 2008
In June 2007 the Commerce Commission denied clearance to both Woolworths and Foodstuffs to acquire The Warehouse. That decision was overturned by the High Court in November. The Commission now appeals to the Court of Appeal.
18 April 2008
The recent decision from the Commerce Commission on Whitcoulls’ application for clearance to acquire Borders provides us with some insights into how the Commission might look at other mergers and acquisitions in the retail sector.
14 April 2008
Analysis of retail mergers getting narrower still? Greenwash marketing – the latest deadly sin; Fair Trading Act assault on retailer marketing continues.
14 April 2008
You can tell that an issue is topical when the Vatican adds it to the list of deadly sins. “Polluting the environment” now appears to sit alongside envy and lust. But if polluting is reviled behaviour, what about falsely claiming that your product is “environmentally friendly”?
14 April 2008
One of the most important phrases in a marketer’s lexicon is that a product is “on sale”, or its variants “special” or “20% off”. The reason is simple: pricing and the notion of a discount or bargain is the most powerful – and sometimes the only – factor in consumers’ purchasing process.
07 March 2008
Australia's competition laws are about to get tougher; criminalising cartels and imposing jail sentences on anyone found guilty.
01 July 2007
The two key devices in the Commerce Act for moderating the conduct of business bullies are: the section 36 prohibition on the taking advantage of market power; and the powers under Part 4 relating to the imposition of price control.
13 February 2007
We welcome the opportunity to participate in the MED’s Review of the Commerce Act clearance and authorisation provisions (Review). As part of our process of responding to the Review we hosted a roundtable discussion attended by executives of major New Zealand businesses representing a diverse range of industries. In this submission we put forward some suggestions for improvements in the clearance process, which resulted from the roundtable discussion.
19 April 2006
2006 may be developing into the year when Fair Trading Act enforcement steps into the limelight. A record fine has been imposed in the banking sector in recent weeks, and more cases involving disclosure of credit card fees remain before the courts.
19 April 2006
Friction has been created between the business community and the Commerce Commission in recent months over an increasingly aggressive enforcement approach, coupled with slow turnaround times in dealing with merger clearance applications.
19 April 2006
The New Zealand Commerce Commission, like its counterpart regulators overseas, has declared open warfare on cartels. It has just secured a record $3.6 million penalty against Koppers Arch companies in the timber chemicals industry.