A collection of FYI Compeition Law articles.

How Confidentially Will Your Confidential Information Be Treated?
February 2006: The Commerce Commission has extensive powers to require you to disclose company documents to them.  Confidentiality is not a reason to withhold documents from the Commission.  How then can you protect the confidentiality of information you disclose to the Commission?

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Commerce Commission Vigilant Over False & Misleading Representations
December 2005: There have been two recent cases brought under the Fair Trading Act where the Commerce Commission was successful in prosecuting companies for making false or misleading representations to sell a product.

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Price Fixing
July 2005: No matter what business you are in, when you have a competitor, there is the potential for price fixing to occur. Price fixing has recently received a high profile in the actions of overseas regulators as well as our own Commerce Commission and this is a timely reminder that businesses need to take particular care not to commit one of the cardinal sins in competition law.

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Doing Time Under the Commerce Act?
April 2005: The Commerce Act imposes criminal liability for obstruction of Commerce Commission investigations but does not impose criminal penalties for breach of its substantive provisions.In a move echoing the increasing global trend towards American-style anti-trust law and enforcement, the Australian Government plans to add another weapon to its fight against cartels.Having already implemented a leniency policy in 2003, which promises immunity for a cartel member who turns in its fellow conspirators, it is now looking at imposing jail time for cartel offences.We look at the Australian Government's plans to introduce prison sanctions and the likely implications for New Zealand.

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The Empire Strikes Back
September 2004: We have previously reported on how Carter Holt was fined $525,000 back in 2000 for pricing below cost in breach of s36 of the Commerce Act. Now, almost 4 years after the High Court decision, the Privy Council has overturned the decisions of the NZ High Court & Court of Appeal in what may be one of its final actions in relation to competition law in this country. We review the key findings from the Privy Council's decision.

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Bridging the Great Divide - Implications of Australian Competition Developments for New Zealand
July 2004: Why look at Australian Law?  The great divide between Australia and New Zealand is no longer so great in terms of competition law. There has been an increasing level of integration between the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974("ATPA") and the New Zealand Commerce Act 1986, particularly since the last round of reforms in New Zealand in 2001. It is important to track Australian developments as an indicator of what may happen here. In fact on 29 June 2004 the Australian and New Zealand governments announced a joint study on the harmonisation of our competition laws.

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Vendor Bidding at Auctions: a fair deal?
May 2004: In a recent decision by the Court of Appeal the rules in relation to vendor bidding have been clarified in order to better protect unsuspecting bidders. In Commerce Commission v Grenadier Real Estate, the Commission claimed Grenadier had breached s9 of the Fair Trading Act during an auction. The High Court found that there was no breach of the Act in December 2002 and the Court of Appeal upheld this decision in its judgment of December 2003.

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Commerce Commission gives Eye Doctors an Earful
April 2004: The Commerce Commission has scored a victory in a claim brought against the Ophthalmological Society of New Zealand and five doctors based in the South Island over concerted action to prevent Australian eye surgeons performing cataract surgery to reduce waiting lists.

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The Giltrap City Toyota Price Fixing Case
November 2003: Giltrap city Toyota("Giltrap") and its former CEO Andrew Mackenzie were successfully sued by the Commerce commission in 2001 for price fixing. They appealed the decision.

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The Commerce Commission and Creeping Regulation
August 2003:  It will not have escaped your notice that in the past few years the Commerce Commission has become a force to be reckoned with.  No longer does it just look at illegal trade practices and mergers and acquisitions.  As we become disenchanted with light handed regulation, the Commission has taken on the mantle of "Regulator" in an increasing number of key sectors in the economy.  Keeping track of just what the Commision is controlling and how it does so is no mean feat.  In this article we provide you with a high level overview of the new role being played by our own home-grown regulatory body.

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Review of Australian Competition - Law Recommends Criminal Sanctions
May 2003:  A long awaited review of competition law in Australia, the Dawson report, has recommended the imposition of criminal sanctions for hard core anti-competitive conduct.   While Australia is taking a tougher approach than we do in New Zealand by imposing criminal sanctions, in other respects the report recommends a raft of changes which will pull the Australian law closer to New Zealand's Commerce Act.  Concerns that Australia would adopt changes which would be out of step with New Zealand and cause further changes to our law have not materialised.

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Price Cutting As A Competitive Response
February 2003:  The term "predatory pricing" is often used by both business people and lawyers to describe price-cutting with the aim of damaging a competitor.  However there is no specific offence of predatory pricing.  The recent Australian Boral1 decision highlights the problems of analysing potentially anti-competitive behaviour in terms of predatory pricing.  In particular, the decision established that two elements of traditional predatory pricing claims - below cost-pricing and recoupment – are not determinative of a breach of the Trade Practices Act(or, in New Zealand, the Commerce Act).

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Runway Regulators
September 2002:  Over four years after the Commerce Commission was asked to investigate the need for price control of our international airports, it has released its final report.

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Personal Liability Under the Commerce Act - How do you Protect Yourself?
September 2001: The Commerce Commission has initiated an investigation into your company for a breach of the Commerce Act. You or your staff have been personally involved in the conduct being investigated. What risks do you face if the Commerce Commission finds a breach of the Act and what can you do about it?

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New Commerce Act - About to Bite?
May 2001: Simpson Grierson's Competition Law Group reports on new parts of the Commerce Act, and the very latest approach to business acquisitions, just announced by the Commerce Commission.

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Strategies for Successful Commerce Commission Applications
April 2001: Elisabeth Welson, a partner in Simpson Grierson's Competition Law Group, recently led the legal team which successfully obtained Commerce Commission authorisation for the owner of the Whakapapa skifield to acquire the Turoa skifield.

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Latest Updates on the Commerce Act
February 2001:  Last year we outlined to you proposed changes to the Commerce Act.  Those changes have been returned to Parliament by the Commerce Select Committee and we now bring you up-to-date with the Committee's recommendations.

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New Teeth Proposed for the Commerce Act
September 2000: One of the few subjects on which the previous and current Governments agreed was the need for Commerce Act reform. The previous Government started the process by introducing the Commerce Amendment Bill. The latest proposals introduce further substantive changes to the Act.

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The Commerce Act - Avoiding Anti-Competitive Behaviour
March 2000: Falling foul of the Commerce Act can prove extremely costly, with penalties of up to $5 million for companies and $500,000 for an individual.

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