The Manager of the Commerce Commission's Legal Services Division Mike Chapman presented a paper on the role of the Commerce Commission at the Corporate Lawyers Conference held recently in Rotorua. The Commerce Commission is the Crown entity charged with enforcing the Commerce Act 1986, the Fair Trading Act 1986 and the Electricity Industry Reform Act 1998. Its purpose is to bring about awareness and acceptance of, and compliance with, these acts so that consumers and producers benefit from healthy competition. One of the aims of this act is to promote effective competition by ensuring that consumers can rely on the information provided by traders to make an informed purchase choice.
Government is at present moving to extend the Commerce Act to give competition law sharper teeth.
In this way it can better define the boundaries of legal and illegal behaviour through the court. It is not complaint-driven nor does it investigate every complaint. It also does not take court action on behalf of individual complainants. Limited resources mean that the commission must prioritise complaints based on the above criteria and it acts on the most significant and blatant breaches. The current emphasis in the Commerce Act is on local authorities, the health sector, electricity, gas and telecommunications.