Our priorities

2020/21 priorities

Enduring priorities

There are a number of areas the Commission will always regard as a priority due to the potential significant impact on consumers, businesses and markets in New Zealand, or because they are a core part of our statutory role.

Focus areas

Each year we target our resources on specific areas that fall within our remit and which are important to everyday life and the economy. For 2020/21 these are:

• Enforcing limits on the fees and interest that can be charged on high cost consumer credit contracts
• Educating lenders and borrowers about changes to consumer credit law
• Preventing harm from pyramid schemes
• Responding to COVID-19 related consumer issues
• Cartels - educating businesses about the introduction of a new criminal offence for competitors who agree not to compete
• Strengthening the regulation of telecommunications
• Reviewing the revenue limit and quality standards applying to Aurora Energy Limited.

Organisation responsiveness

Through a programme called 'fit for the future', we are focussed on remaining responsive to changes in expectations about how we carry out our role.

In 2020/21 we will be continuing to evolve our engagement with consumers and businesses, expanding our presence in Auckland, supporting strategy and governance, building broader corporate capability and sharing knowledge through international and domestic networks.

Supporting economic recovery

As COVID-19 and its after-effects bring greater uncertainty to markets, some aspects of our work may be particularly significant. Changes in the way competitive markets operate could have a significant long-term effect on economic recovery. These changes can happen quickly, and can have enduring consequences that are difficult to undo.

In 2020/21 we will be helping to safeguard the integrity of competitive markets by:

• Working with Government agencies to ensure competition considerations feature in policy development, regulatory initiatives and procurement
• Using the new fast track process to consider authorisations
• Reviewing mergers and acquisitions that occur in response to changing circumstances
• Educating industry about their obligations under competition law
• Taking enforcement action against businesses that unlawfully reduce or remove competition
• Building out understanding about the impact of recent events on competition
• Protecting and promoting competition where it is beneficial to consumers (in infrastructure industries subject to sector-specific regulation).