Strength in advocacy
This article originally appeared on Gary Hughes’ website www.law-strategy.nz and can be seen here.
A significant law reform has recently taken effect in the competition/cartels area, after a decade’s worth of debate, policy U-turns, and delayed implementation.
Akarana Chambers’ barrister Gary Hughes has written a series of 5 articles for the Auckland District Law Society weekly publication LawNews to explain the intricacies of the cartel criminalisation law reforms.
From 8 April 2021 engaging in cartel conduct will attract criminal sanctions under the Commerce Act 1986. Directors and officers of a business who are actively involved in collusion may in future land themselves a jail sentence.
Anti-competitive cartels were already illegal, and subject to significant financial penalties, but dealt with only as a civil court matter in the past.
This series of articles aims to provide a refresher to busy lawyers and commercial businesses on key aspects of the law of cartels and collusion. The goal is to improve accurate issue-spotting in commercial transactions and contracts. The change to criminalisation means the stakes are now higher if straying close to such conduct in future.
Although the law change was originally passed in 2019, as the Commerce (Criminalisation of Cartels) Amendment Act 2019, a 2-year long lead time before implementation means it has flown a little under the radar, understandably buried beneath coronavirus news topics.
This series of 5 articles explains aspects of:
For a PDF copy of the 5-article series as as published, click here.
