We have warned Central Livestock Limited that they likely breached section 27 via 30 of the Commerce Act 1986 by entering into three anti-competitive agreements to set fees at livestock saleyards. The fees arose in connection with the National Animal Identification and Tracing Act 2012. The agreements were: saleyards would charge a minimum fee of $25 for the tagging of any untagged cattle ($10 for any calves); agents would charge farmers an RFID administration fee of $1.50 per head of cattle to register saleyard based cattle movements; and saleyards would increase existing yard fees by $1.50 per head of cattle.
