Antitrust - MERW

As Competition (Antitrust), Trade Practices & Regulatory Law become increasingly complex and widespread in application, it is critical clients receive the very best legal and strategic advice and are proactive in minimising risk.

Minter Ellison Rudd Watts has long been a market leader in the area, offering a breadth and depth of experience second to none in NZ. We have acted on many of the most complex and high profile matters.

Team members have worked for leading international firms, and have international post graduate degrees and economics qualifications. They understand overseas antitrust issues and their relevance to NZ. That background brings a breadth of experience and expertise to the work that we do for our clients and enables us to understand the political and economic issues that shape competition and regulatory policy.

Inevitably, no matter how effective a risk management programme is, there is a chance that corporations will face litigation brought by the Commerce Commission or competitors. Our team is cross-disciplinary, dealing with both contentious and non-contentious competition and regulatory matters. We manage complex litigation at all court levels and members of our team have been involved in some of the leading decisions in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

We have a close working relationship with the Commerce Commission and a track record of success.

In 2007 alone, the team had a 100% success rate on mergers and investigations, including acting on nearly half the clearance work and various successfully resolved Commission investigations. Nearly all these mergers could be characterised as "complex mergers", involving a reduction in players from "three to two" or "two to one" (ie merger to monopoly).
This included acting for the JV purchasers in: NZ Post/Deltarg; Cavalier/NEC; and Southern Cross/QE Healths, all of which were cleared.
We also acted on Shell NZ's sale of LPG assets to BOC; the competition aspects of the Rivermill Bakeries sale to Goodman Fielder; two Medichem sales to Transpacific Technical Services (TPI); and the Wellington Radiology sale to Pacific Radiology. All these mergers were cleared.

Other high profile experience has included acting on the NZ aspects of A.P Moller-Maersks' acquisition of PONL; aspects of the proposed Qantas/Air New Zealand alliance; the Southern Cross/Aetna merger (including successful cases against the Commerce Commission in both the High Court and Court of Appeal). We advised a major multinational on one of the first Leniency applications under the Commission's current leniency policy and we continue to act in relation to a number of high profile cartel investigations.

We acted for BNZ on the defence of the prosecution brought by the Commerce Commission under the Fair Trading Act in relation to the disclosure of foreign currency conversion fees; acted for Subritzky Sealink Limited in the defence of civil proceedings alleging the misuse of market power in relation to ferry services, including advising and access issues; and acted for Fonterra Co-Operative Group Limited in two proceedings involving judicial review and an application for a declaration relating to regulated raw milk prices.

Andrew Matthews, together with Paul Schoff from Minter Ellison, wrote a comprehensive review of cartels in The Asia-Pacific Antitrust Review (published by Global Competition Review in association with Minter Ellison) 2010. Click here to read the Cartels: Overview (2010). Click here to read the 2009 cartels review.