Introduction

This chapter examines four distinctive features that mark competition law in New Zealand (NZ). Some of these (the first and fourth) are unique to NZ while others (the second and third) are common to all antitrust regimes. The first characteristic is the close relationship with Australian competition law and policy. Being modelled upon Australian legislation, NZ law tracks Australian developments, although the pattern is not one of slavish adherence. A second motif is the ongoing tension between competition law as law and competition law as applied to industrial organization economics. NZ courts have consistently held that economics plays an important but supplemental and subsidiary role. The concepts of “competition” and “market” are discussed. Third, there is ambivalence over the ambit of competition law. This chapter examines both exemptions from the Commerce Act 1986 and the extension of competition law to give it a limited extraterritorial effect. Fourth, another recurring theme is the prevalence of the small, isolated economy argument (NZ is a small fish in the global pond) in the development of policy, doctrine, and the interpretation of the law.