Past enquiries or reviews of economic regulation
This page has information about the 2013 Merits review of Part 4 of the Commerce Act, and work that has been done in the area of airport regulation.
On this page
Merits review of Part 4 of the Commerce Act — 2013
The Commerce Commission is required to set up-front rules that apply to Part 4 regulation before any regulation is applied to goods or services. These are called called 'input methodologies', and can be appealed on their merits to the High Court.
Input methodologies:
- indicate how the Commerce Commission determines important components of regulation, such as the firm’s cost of capital, regulatory asset base valuation, allocation of common costs and taxation
- promote certainty for suppliers and consumers.
The High Court considered the first-ever Part 4 merits appeals between September 2012 and February 2013, and delivered its decision in December 2013.
Summary findings from the first stage
We carried out an evaluation of the Part 4 merits review regime following the 2012/13 merits appeals. The first stage of the evaluation involved conducting a series of interviews with various stakeholders to obtain their views.
Options for further work on airport regulation — 2007
In 2007 the then Ministry of Economic Development (now the Economic Development Group of MBIE) led work to consider regulation of airports under the Commerce Act.
On 14 November 2007 the Cabinet Policy Committee agreed that the Ministry of Economic Development would lead further work in 2008/09 to consider whether:
- additional airports to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (AIAL, WIAL, CIAL) should be subject to regulation under the Commerce Act
- other forms of regulation should apply to regulated airport companies under the Commerce Act.
Related documents
Discussion paper
Discussion Paper: Further Work on Airport Regulation Proposed for 2008/2009 [PDF, 35 KB]
Cabinet paper
This Cabinet paper makes recommendations on strengthening the economic regulation of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch International Airports, in response to submissions made on the review of Parts 4 and 4A of the Commerce Act.
Cabinet paper: Commerce Act Review – Airports [PDF, 169 KB]
Regulatory impact statement (RIS)
The RIS proposed that:
- a decision be made to provide for a strengthened information disclosure price monitoring regime for Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airports under the Commerce Act
- further work be undertaken on whether further regulation is required for other airports in New Zealand.
Regulatory impact statement: Commerce Act Review – Airports [PDF, 73 KB]
Inquiry into airfield activities — 2002
In 2002 the then Minister of Commerce published a report from the Commerce Commission on the study of airfield activities at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch international airports.
The report was done in response to a request from the Minister for the Commission to provide a study on whether airfield activities (as defined in the Airport Authorities Amendment Act 1997) provided by the 3 major international airport companies should be controlled under Part 4 of the Commerce Act.
In 2003 the Minister of Commerce announced that regulatory controls would not be imposed.
Related documents
Commerce Commission report
- Commerce Commission Final Report: Part IV inquiry into airfield activities at Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch International Airports [PDF, 13 MB]
- Commerce Commission Final Report: Part IV inquiry into airfield activities at Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch international airports — EXECUTIVE SUMMARY [PDF, 519 KB]
Cabinet papers and advice
- Cabinet decision, May 2003 [PDF, 15 KB]
- Memorandum to Cabinet: Regulatory Control Inquiry into Airfield Activities [PDF, 99 KB]
- Airports Inquiry — Review of submissions, October 2002 [PDF, 176 KB]
- Progress on Airports Advice, December 2002 [PDF, 118 KB]
- Control of Airports Advice, May 2003 [PDF, 163 KB]
- Summary of submissions on the Commission's final report [PDF, 195 KB]