The arrangement allows the Commission to share compulsorily acquired information and provide investigative assistance to the ACCC. It follows recent amendments to the Commerce Act, Fair Trading Act, Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act and the Telecommunications Act. The changes aim to enhance cooperation between the Commission and overseas competition, consumer and telecommunications regulators.
Following the signing of the arrangement in Wellington last month, ACCC Chairman Rod Sims commented that no two competition agencies in the world had a closer relationship than the ACCC and the New Zealand Commerce Commission.
Commerce Commission Chairman Dr Mark Berry welcomed the signing of the arrangement. “The increasing globalisation of business means that cross-border trade and transactions are commonplace. Co-operation between competition and consumer regulators throughout the world in the investigation of possible breaches of the laws that they enforce increases the efficiency of investigations and the likelihood that illegal conduct will be effectively dealt with,” said Dr Berry.
The new provisions enable the Commerce Commission to provide, on request, compulsorily acquired information and investigative assistance to overseas regulators subject to certain safeguards, if a relevant cooperation arrangement has been entered into.
Compulsorily acquired information is information that is not in the public domain, and which is acquired by the Commission as a result of or in relation to the exercise by the Commission of any of our statutory information-gathering powers.
Investigative assistance includes the provision of assistance by way of exercising any of our statutory information gathering powers.
A relevant cooperation arrangement may be between the New Zealand Government and the relevant overseas government, or between the Commission and the overseas regulator.
The new provisions reflect similar powers under Australian law, and together with the new cooperation arrangement will strengthen our already close relationship with the ACCC.
“Cooperation with the ACCC is particularly important to the Commission. Many companies operating in New Zealand also operate in Australia. Many companies have customers in both countries. A significant number of investigations have cross-border implications. The new provisions together with the cooperation agreement will make it easier for the Commission and the ACCC to share relevant information and resources, to enable each agency to be more effective in our individual markets”, said Dr Berry.
The new legislation provides the opportunity to further develop relationships with our international counterparts by putting in place a more formal cooperation arrangement.
The design of the new provisions ensures that appropriate safeguards are in place to address public interest concerns, including the maintenance of privacy interests, confidentiality and legal privilege, as well as ensuring that there is not prejudice to New Zealand’s trade interests. This is reflected in the ACCC cooperation arrangement. For example, when providing information or assistance to an overseas regulator the Commission is able to impose conditions on that provision. Conditions imposed could cover, for example, confidentiality, storage, copying and disposal of information.
The Commission will be publishing guidelines on how we will deal with requests from overseas agencies for information and assistance. These guidelines will be available on our website.
