We enforce legislation that promotes competition in New Zealand markets and prohibits misleading and deceptive conduct by traders. The Commission also enforces a number of pieces of legislation that, through regulation, aim to provide the benefits of competition in markets where effective competition does not exist. This includes in the telecommunications, dairy, electricity, gas pipelines and airport sectors.
The Commission is an independent Crown entity established under section 8 of the Commerce Act 1986.The Commission is not subject to direction from the government in carrying out its enforcement and regulatory control activities. The Commerce Commission’s purpose is to achieve the best possible outcomes in competitive and regulated markets for the long-term benefit of New Zealanders.
Our Values
The Commission is committed to acting with integrity, responsibility and respect. It acts professionally, independently and has transparent processes. It respects and safeguards commercially sensitive material. It adopts a principled, but pragmatic approach in meeting its purpose.
What we don’t do
We do not enforce the Consumer Guarantees Act, which deals with faulty goods and services. This a self-enforcing piece of legislation and you can find out more about it at the Ministry for Consumer Affairs website.
We do not regulate prices, other than in some industries described above. New Zealand has a market economy, which means prices are set by the market. Consumers can shop around, and provided business are not indulging in anti-competitive or misleading activities, the Commission has no involvement in determining whether prices are fair.
We do not take action on behalf of individuals. The Commission investigates issues that are in the public interest. While your complaint may spark an investigation, we won’t be acting on your behalf, rather as a public enforcement agency.
We do not give advice. As an enforcement agency, we can not give advice. However we do produce guidelines and a number of publications, including the information on this website, which is aimed at enhancing understanding of the legislation we enforce and how we work.
We do not investigate every complaint we receive. The Commission receives around 15,000 complaints a year. Up to a quarter of these are not issues the Commission has the mandate to deal with. Of the remainder, we have to pick those cases to investigate where the public detriment is highest. Your can read more about the case selection process under Enforcement criteria.
