The evolution of competition law in New Zealand
Rex Ahdar
Oxford University Press (2000)
Rex Ahdar, The Evolution of Competition Law in New Zealand (Oxford University Press, 2020)
Date: 20 August 2020
ISBN: 9780198855606
336 Pages
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Publisher’s description
The modern era of competition law in New Zealand began with the Commerce Act 1986. Since then, a steady and impressive corpus of case law had traversed all the usual major areas of antitrust law: cartels, resale price maintenance, exclusive dealing, tying, group boycotts, monopolization, mergers and acquisitions, exempted sectors, and the role of economic evidence. This volume explains the rationale for the various major reforms, the ongoing contestation between the Harvard and Chicago Schools of antitrust, and traces the developments of key concepts over the last 34 years.
This title also explores systemic issues such as how well has New Zealand moulded its own competition law whilst nonetheless selectively drawing upon the policies, case law, and wisdom of foreign jurisdictions; how effectively has it faced the challenge of adapting its fledgling competition law to the reality of being a small, deregulated, open, and distant economy; and how successful was the application of competition law to utilities in the experimental era of 'light handed regulation'.
Written by a New Zealand competition expert, this detailed, original, and comprehensive chronicle of New Zealand's competition law and policy draws together the common threads that mark the modern era and offers some predictions about how the next decades of New Zealand competition law might unfold.
Table of contents
Introduction
The Pre-Modern Period of Competition Law
The Goals of Competition Law
Horizontal Arrangements: From Price Fixing and Boycotts to Cartel Conduct
Vertical Arrangements
Powerful Firms and Monopolizing Conduct
The Undulating Path of Merger Policy
Granting Immunity: Authorization and 'Public Benefit'
Enforcement and Remedies
Retrospect and Prospect