Commission releases guidelines for assessing economic benefits and detriments
Published15 Oct 1994
The Commerce Commission has released guidelines explaining how it will analyse public benefits and detriments when considering matters under the Commerce Act.
Commission Chairman Alan Bollard said the "public benefit test" plays a key role in the Act. The Commission can authorise otherwise anti-competitive business practices and business acquisitions if they result in more benefit to the public than detriment to competition.
The guidelines draw together the principles behind earlier decisions of the Commission, submissions made to the 1991-92 review of the Act, legal and economic analysis.
"These guidelines have the potential to assist present and future Commission members to apply sound and consistent principles in reaching authorisation decisions, and to assist the business community to have well-focused input into those decisions," Dr Bollard said.
"Each application will still be dealt with on a case by case basis. The guidelines cannot cover every circumstance, rather they provide a framework to work on.
"The purpose is to indicate to the business community the Commission's views as to what constitutes public benefits to be compared against the detriments of less competition or acquiring or strengthening a dominant position in a market."
The two page summary from Guidelines to the Analysis of Public Benefits and Detriments in the Context of the Commerce Act follows
Media contact:Vince Cholewa, Communications Officer
