The team has expertise in all elements of competition and regulatory law, including advice, clearances and authorisations of mergers and conduct (non contentious matters) and investigations, prosecutions and appeals of New Zealand's Commerce Commission decisions (contentious matters). The Competition Team acts for clients across a wide variety of industry sectors including: financial services, aviation, electricity, gas, telecommunications, dairy, retail, food, manufacturing, forestry, and pharmaceuticals, among others. In regular contact with New Zealand's Commerce Commission, the team also works with many of the most respected economic advisors in New Zealand and globally.

The team also has significant experience preparing merger filings and responding to behavioural, including cartel, investigations on behalf of international clients, working with counsel based in Australia, the US and the EU. Familiarity with the points of similarity and difference between the New Zealand and major international regimes, allows the team to work effectively and efficiently in a cross-border legal team environment.

Combined with our team's own qualifications, this provides us with the ability to resource projects in a targeted way to achieve the optimal outcome for clients.

Recent examples of the Competition Team's work include representing:

• Lion Nathan in their application to acquire the assets of Independent Liquor. A significant transaction (which for commercial reasons did not proceed), but which required the NZCC to analyse liquor markets, including for the first time, the market for RTDs. 
• Hancock Natural Resources of the US in respect of their acquisitions of forestry assets in the central North Island of New Zealand from Carter Holt Harvey. 
• Pfizer in respect of the sale of their Consumer Healthcare business to Johnson and Johnson. 
• Qantas in respect of their strategic alliance with Air New Zealand, including the acquisition of a shareholding in Air New Zealand. 
• Fairfax on the acquisition of TradeMe and also of Times Media Group. 
• Fonterra on the acquisition of NZ Dairy Foods (from Rank Group).

Publications

13 May 2010
Privilege in-house?

23 April 2010
Russell McVeagh successful in obtaining unanimous Supreme Court decision in relation to the extraterritorial reach of the NZ Commerce Act

9 April 2010
Caveat emptor? Competition conditions in sale and purchase agreements