Dr Eric Crampton: Open markets are still the best way to a fair economy

The strongest protection tenants can have is plenty of other potential places to rent, from different landlords eager to rent them a home.

When zoning rules make it very difficult to build new housing, existing landlords do not face much potential competition. If every landlord has dozens of tenants racing to submit applications as soon as a property becomes vacant, landlords will have a lot of power over their tenants. And rents will be high.

Andrew Dickens: Is it time to split electricity gentailers?

Here we are in the middle of autumn, or is it the start of another winter of discontent? Because April the 1st is the time of scheduled price increases. All sorts of things are going up. The minimum wage goes up today, putting more pressure on small businesses. Thank you very much, at a time of pressure anyway, you're going to have to spend more on your wage bill. Meanwhile, the ACC earners' levy is going up to $1.75 for every $100 you earn from today. That is up from $1.57, up 11%. So you'll be paying 11% more of your wage into ACC than you were before. That is up to a limit of $156,000 or something like that. It's going to hit us all.

Dr Eric Crampton: Disappointment in attempt to improve competition laws

The coalition agreements that formed the government promised an important change to the Commerce Act.

The Commerce Commission has always been able to take on traditional cartel arrangements: secret agreements where businesses divvy up a market, restrict output, and raise prices. Those arrangements are rightly subject to heavy monetary penalties.

But cartels are not the only way competition gets blocked.

Dr Eric Crampton: Not-so-killer acquisitions

A lot of changes are coming in competition policy. Last week, the government announced a package of reforms that, overall, set the Commerce Commission on a more activist tack.

One proposed reform will align New Zealand more closely with Australia’s regime, guarding against so-called ‘killer acquisitions’.

Chris Lynch: Commission files proceedings against Westpac for alleged breaches

The Commerce Commission has filed proceedings against Westpac New Zealand Ltd for allegedly breaching lender responsibility principles under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (CCCFA).

The Commission said multiple failures meant customers did not receive legally required information about their loans and, in some cases, agreed interest rate discounts were not applied.

Dr Eric Crampton: Learning from letters

We can learn a lot from newspapers’ Letters to the Editor pages.

This week, I had a column in the Stuff newspapers on the Initiative’s proposed fast-track for new supermarkets.

I noted that existing district plans block new supermarkets that might compete with existing ones. So, we suggested enabling large-scale entry by a new player, overriding anticompetitive parts of district plans, and handling plan changes and consents for all sites at one go.

Dr Benno Blaschke: Breaking up supermarkets won’t solve competition issues

The government is impatient for change in grocery retail. Minister Willis put supermarkets on notice that they may even be broken up if they do not put forward acceptable proposals.

The Commerce Commission’s 2022 market study pointed to a different underlying problem. Structural separation is unlikely to do much good if it is not solved. If this problem is solved, other measures might not be needed.

Sir Bob Jones: More Kafkaesque madness

A week back, a government agency, namely the Commerce Commission, prosecuted Kiwibank, a government owned entity, in another government agency’s premises, namely the Auckland District Court.

The upshot, doubtless involving costly lawyers, was Kiwibank being fined $1.5 million.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Does ComCom hate the private sector?.....

Does ComCom hate the private sector? It lays criminal charges on OneNZ, but not on Otago University for far worse breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

Monopolies are running riot in NZ. Air NZ, which is majority state owned, for one. Auckland Airport, which is part owned by the Council. The Big Banks, of which State owned Kiwi Bank is one. Fletcher Building that was kept afloat by the government's wage subsidy. The Big Supermarkets that were given a State Monopoly License during the Covid lockdowns whilst small green grocers were bankrupted. The Commerce Commission hasn't scratched them. It is ineffective.

Mike's Minute: The ComCom Transpower decision is madness

It's ironic that we mention the Commerce Commission yesterday and here we are today, indulging in a bit more of its madness.

Lines charges, the cost of getting power to your house, is going to get more expensive.

Your bill will rise for the next handful of years by up to $85. That’s over $1,000 a year.

Mike's Minute: What are the ComCom doing at the moment?

I think at times the Commerce Commission has an easy job in the sense it starts out life, in appearance anyway, as being on “our side. "Our” side being the people's side.

We need a hero, a protector to keep the big bad boys away from our lives and wallets.

Lately though, they look like they might have a large legal budget that someone has told them to spend or else they will lose it.

John MacDonald: $10M fines will sort out the supermarkets. As if

The Commerce Commission says the big supermarket operators are still creaming it.

They’re not making the changes the Commission wanted them to make. Their profits are still too high and the Commission is talking tough, saying it would like to be able to fine them up to $10 million if they keep ripping people off and ignoring what the Commission wants.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Commerce Commission’s green crusade

No longer content with only overseeing human enterprises, the Commerce Commission has set its eyes on perfecting New Zealand’s flora and fauna.

“We have found unfair advantages in New Zealand’s ecosystems,” said a Commission spokesperson. “It is time to level the playing field in our natural world.”

Chris Lynch: Grocery report paints “concerning picture”

The Commerce Commission is pushing for increased regulatory powers to improve competition in New Zealand’s $25 billion grocery sector, following the release of its first Annual Grocery Report.

The report painted a “concerning picture” of the market, with high profitability, increasing retail margins, and dominance by the major supermarkets—Foodstuffs North Island, Foodstuffs South Island, and Woolworths NZ.

Kerre Woodham: What's it going to take to get supermarket competition?

We're going a little bit back to the future today because the annual report card into the grocery industry came out yesterday, and we were overrun with health talk. So we'll go back to that report and look at the ramifications for the industry, for the suppliers, and for us, the consumers.

Dr Eric Crampton: A prescription for better regulation

A Bargain Chemist in Upper Hutt has been unable to dispense prescriptions since it opened in 2022. Its website simply notes “Prescriptions not currently available”.

The problem seems to have nothing to do with the chemist itself. Instead, it is just one symptom of a much broader public policy problem.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm not convinced the Commerce Commission study will lead anywhere

For once, we have a Commerce Commission study that isn’t going nowhere.

Nicola Willis says she's going to do what the Commerce Commission has recommended in the banking study out today - and she'll do all 14 recommendations.

This is a little surprise, isn’t it? Because we have got very used to these studies coming out and pretty much nothing of any substance being done. We've had the petrol study, the supermarket study, the construction industry study - I was a little cynical about the banking study, but I was wrong.

Francesca Rudkin: Are you making an effort to get cheaper fuel?

As emails keep hitting the inbox—or the letters hitting the letterbox if you’re still supporting the postal system—telling us of price increases for all sorts of things. From the cost of our energy, to insurance premiums, to our favourite streaming service, we're all still keeping a close on our household budgets and doing what we can to try and keep them under control.

So, how far do you go to make sure you are paying the best price for petrol?

Chris Lynch: Kiwibank - Alleged systemic breaches

Commerce Commission files criminal charges against Kiwibank, alleging systemic breaches of Fair Trading Act

The Commerce Commission has filed criminal charges against Kiwibank Limited (Kiwibank), alleging systemic breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

The breaches relate to issues that resulted in more than $7 million being incorrectly charged to over 36,000 customers for fees and interest rates in relation to home loans, credit cards and overdrafts, over a period of several years.

David Farrar: Is the Commerce Commission for consumers or suppliers

Max Salmon writes:

Last week the Commerce Commission announced its concern with a proposed merger between Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island. Their concern is a decrease in competition in the market.

It sounds crazy when you first hear it, but it’s even weirder when you see what the Commerce Commission is actually worried about.