Thank you for contacting the Commerce Commission. Your complaint or enquiry will be recorded in our database.

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If your enquiry was a request for information under the Official Information Act this will be responded to within 20 working days.

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If you have a general enquiry we will respond as soon as we can. In the meantime, please take a look at our fact sheets (Fair Trading<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/fair-trading/f...>, Competition<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/business-compe...>, Consumer Credit<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/consumer-credi...> or Regulated Industries<http://www.comcom.govt.nz/regulated-indu...>) where you may find the answer to your question.

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Dear Mr Burgoyne,

1.                  I refer to your email of 16 August 2014 in which you
asked for information relating to cases the Commission has taken between
2002 and 2014.

2.                  We have treated this as a request for information
under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA).

3.                  In your email you asked for:

3.1              the number of cases the Commission took to court between
2002 and 2008;

3.2              the number of cases the Commission won in court, or
settled out of court, between 2002 and 2008;

3.3              the total amount in fines or settlements received by the
Commission, in or out of court, between 2002 and 2008;

3.4              the number of cases the Commission took to court between
2008 and 2014?

3.5              the number of cases the Commission won in court, or
settled out of court, between 2008 and 2014; and

3.6              the total amount in fines or settlements received by the
Commission, in or out of court, between 2008 and 2014.

4.                  To accurately answer some of your questions it will be
necessary to search through a large amount of information. As such, the
Commission requires an extension until 1 October 2014, to provide a
response to your request.

5.                  We note that you have the right, under section 28(3)
of the OIA, to make a complaint to an Ombudsman regarding this extension.

6.                  If you have any questions or concerns, please do not
hesitate to contact me. 

 

Yours sincerely,

Shani Gunawardana

Legal Support Officer | Competition Branch

Commerce Commission |Te Komihana Tauhokohoko

44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand

DDI +64 (04) 924 3739 | [1][email address]

Follow us on Twitter [2]@NZComCom

 

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and
CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of
this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message
and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.twitter.com/nzcomcom

Dear Mr Burgoyne,

 

We refer to your request of 16 August 2014 for information regarding the
number of cases the Commerce Commission took to court, the number won or
settled, and the total received in fines or settlements between 2002 and
2014.

 

On 11 September 2014, you were advised of the Commission’s extension under
section 15A of the Official Information Act 1982, to 1 October 2014 to
provide a response to your request.

 

Your request was considered and the Commission has decided to supply the
information you have requested. In order to provide an accurate response
to your request  it is necessary to search through a large amount of
information as well as verify accuracy and collate the results. We have
already initiated the process to collate the information and it will be
provided to you in due course.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Shani Gunawardana

Legal Support Officer | Competition Branch

Commerce Commission |Te Komihana Tauhokohoko

44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand

 

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and
CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of
this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message
and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.

 

 

Dear Mr Burgoyne,

We refer to your email on 12 October in relation to your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information regarding the number of cases the Commerce Commission took to court, the number won or settled, and the total received in fines or settlements between 2002 and 2014.

Following our extension of the response period under section 15A(1)(a), on 30 September we responded to your request by notifying you that the Commission has decided to release the information, and will provide it to you in due course. Unfortunately the Commission does not have a complete record of the information you have requested spanning the 12 year period relevant to your request. A member of the Commission’s staff has been working towards collating the relevant data as well as verifying its accuracy, however, this process takes a considerable amount of time as the data spans across a 12 year period.

We will endeavour to provide you with the information for the period from 2008 – 2014 within the next two weeks, and will provide the remainder of the information soon thereafter.

Yours sincerely,

Shani Gunawardana
Legal Support Officer | Competition Branch
Commerce Commission |Te Komihana Tauhokohoko
44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand

-----Original Message-----
From: Rod Burgoyne [mailto:[OIA #1908 email]]
Sent: Sunday, 12 October 2014 12:17 p.m.
To: Shani Gunawardana
Subject: Re: Response to Official Information Act request [CCNZ-iManage.FID174258]

Dear Shani Gunawardana,

I don't particularly want to waste the Ombudsman time as I know they are under funded and short staffed, but if I don't have any response soon to my request you will leave me with no other choice, sorry.

Yours sincerely,

Rod Burgoyne

-----Original Message-----

Dear Mr Burgoyne,

 

We refer to your request of 16 August 2014 for information regarding the number of cases the Commerce Commission took to court, the number won or settled, and the total received in fines or settlements between 2002 and 2014.

 

On 11 September 2014, you were advised of the Commission’s extension under section 15A of the Official Information Act 1982, to 1 October 2014 to provide a response to your request.

 

Your request was considered and the Commission has decided to supply the information you have requested. In order to provide an accurate response to your request  it is necessary to search through a large amount of information as well as verify accuracy and collate the results. We have already initiated the process to collate the information and it will be provided to you in due course.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Shani Gunawardana

Legal Support Officer | Competition Branch

Commerce Commission |Te Komihana Tauhokohoko

44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand

 

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[OIA #1908 email]

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
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hide quoted sections

Dear Mr Burgoyne,

1.                  We refer to your request under the Official
Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information regarding the number of cases
the Commerce Commission has taken to court, the number won or  settled,
and the total received in fines or settlements between 2002 and  2014.

2.                  You have separated out two time periods in your
request, namely 2002- 2008 and 2008 – 2014. We have searched through our
database, verified the accuracy and collated the results, and we are now
able to provide you with the information relating to the 2008 – 2014 time
period.

3.                  The information relating to the 2002 – 2008 period is
being processed and will be provided in due course.

Notes on 2008 – 2014 information

4.                  The Commission’s financial year runs from 1 July to 30
June, therefore, we have included information from July 2008 to June 2014.

5.                  The information we have provided does not include
judicial review proceedings.

6.                  Where multiple parties were prosecuted within an
investigation we have counted each party separately.

Information released

7.                  The Commission has taken 134 cases to court between 1
July 2008 and 30 June 2014. You have requested cases that the Commission
has “took to court”. We have interpreted this to be proceedings where the
outcome resulted in a court judgement.

8.                  The Commission has won in court or settled out of
court 178 cases. This figure includes settlements where court proceedings
were never initiated.  

9.                  The Commission secured a total of $259,717,657 in
fines and settlements, in and out of court, between 1 July 2008 and 30
June 2014. This figure consists of penalties imposed to the amount of
$81,746,685 as well as $177,970,972 in reparation and compensation paid to
consumers.        

Ombudsman

10.              If you are not satisfied with the manner in which the
information was supplied by the Commission in relation to your OIA
request, section 28(1) of the OIA provides you with the right to ask an
Ombudsman to investigate.

Yours sincerely,

Shani Gunawardana

Legal Support Officer

Commerce Commission

Phone 0800 943 600

 

 

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and
CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of
this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message
and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.

 

 

Dear Mr Burgoyne,

We refer to you email earlier today relating to your request under the Official Information Act 1982(OIA) for information regarding the number of cases the Commerce Commission took to court, the number won or settled, and the total received in fines or settlements between 2002 and 2014.

On 30 September we responded to your request by notifying you that the Commission has decided to release the information, and in 24 October we supplied information relating to the 2008 -2014 time period. We apologise for the delay in providing you with the remainder of the information that you have requested. However, as we have informed you previously this information has required a substantial amount of research and collation. The Commission did not have a complete record of this information, collated in the specific format that you have requested, in order to provide you with the information we have been working to compile a complete and accurate database. The process has involved members of Commission staff locating the electronic versions of actual documents for every case spanning a 12 year time period to ensure that the financial figures we release are accurate. Commission staff are then required to cross reference this data with media releases and the annual reports over the last 12 years to ensure that we provide a complete and accurate record. As you can appreciate, this is a time consuming process and is being completed as soon as practicable without inferring with the other duties and obligations of staff.

We anticipate that we can provide you with the information for the period July 2005 – June 2008 within the next week, and hope to provide you with the remainder of the information soon thereafter.

Yours sincerely,

Shani Gunawardana
Legal Support Officer | Competition Branch
Commerce Commission |Te Komihana Tauhokohoko
44 The Terrace | PO Box 2351 | Wellington 6140 | New Zealand

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and
CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of
this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message
and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.

Dear Mr Burgoyne,

Official Information Act request 2289

We refer to your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for
information regarding the number of cases the Commerce Commission has
taken to court, the number won or  settled, and the total received in
fines or settlements between 2002 and  2014.

We have been working to collate the information you have requested and we
were hoping to provide you with the information for the July 2005 – June
2008 time period within this week. Unfortunately, searching through our
database and verifying the data has taken longer than expected. At this
time we are able to provide you with the information relating to the
2007/2008 financial year.

The information relating to the 2005 – 2007 period is being processed and
will be provided to you within the next few business days.

The information relating to the 2002 – 2005 period will be verified and
provided in due course.

Notes on 2007/2008 information

The Commission’s financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June, therefore, we
have included information from July 2007 to June 2008.

The information we have provided does not include judicial review
proceedings.

Where multiple parties were prosecuted within an investigation we have
counted each party separately.

Information released

The Commission has taken 27 cases to court between 1 July 2007 and 30 June
2008. You have requested cases that the Commission has “took to court”. We
have interpreted this to be proceedings where the outcome resulted in a
court judgement.

The Commission has won in court or settled out of court 50 cases. This
figure includes settlements where court proceedings were never
initiated.  

The Commission secured a total of $7,676,132 in fines and settlements, in
and out of court, between 1 July 2007 and 30 June 2008. This figure
consists of penalties imposed to the amount of $3,841,780 as well as
$3,834,352 reparation and compensation paid to consumers.   

Ombudsman

If you are not satisfied with the manner in which the information was
supplied by the Commission in relation to your OIA request, section 28(1)
of the OIA provides you with the right to ask an Ombudsman to investigate.

Yours sincerely,

Shani Gunawardana

Legal Support Officer

Commerce Commission

Phone 0800 943 600

 

 

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and
CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of
this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message
and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.

 

 

Dear Mr Burgoyne

Official Information Act request 2289

We refer to your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for
information regarding the number of cases the Commerce Commission has
taken to court, the number won or  settled, and the total received in
fines or settlements between 2002 and  2014.

We have been working to collate the information you have requested and at
this time we are able to provide you with the information relating to the
information for the July 2005 – June 2007 time period.

The information relating to the 2002 – 2005 period will be verified and
provided in due course.

Notes on 2007/2008 information

The Commission’s financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June, therefore, we
have included information from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2007.

The information we have provided does not include judicial review
proceedings.

Where multiple parties were prosecuted within an investigation we have
counted each party separately.

Information released

The Commission has taken 81 cases to court between 1 July 2005 and 30 June
2007. You have requested cases that the Commission has “took to court”. We
have interpreted this to be proceedings where the outcome resulted in a
court judgement.

The Commission has won in court or settled out of court 104 cases. This
figure includes settlements where court proceedings were never
initiated.  

The Commission secured a total of $419,414,434 in fines and settlements,
in and out of court, between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2007. This figure
consists of penalties imposed to the amount of $12,427,250 as well as
$28,455,576 reparation and compensation paid to consumers.   

Ombudsman

If you are not satisfied with the manner in which the information was
supplied by the Commission in relation to your OIA request, section 28(1)
of the OIA provides you with the right to ask an Ombudsman to investigate.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Shani Gunawardana

Legal Support Officer

Commerce Commission

Phone 0800 943 600

 

 

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and
CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of
this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message
and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.

 

 

Dear Mr Burgoyne,

 

We refer to the email sent to you on 3 December 2014 relating to your
request under the Official Information Act 1982(OIA) for information
regarding the number of cases the Commerce Commission took to court, the
number won or settled, and the total received in fines or settlements
between 2002 and 2014.

 

We note that there was an error in the calculation of the total amount
the Commission has secured in fines and settlements, in and out of court,
between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2007. The correct total amount of fines
and settlements secured by the Commission between 1 July 2005 and 30 June
2007 is $40,882,826, consisting of $12,427,250 in penalties and $
28,455,567 in reparation and compensation.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Shani Gunawardana

Legal Support Officer | Competition Branch

Commerce Commission |Te Komihana Tauhokohoko

 

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and
CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of
this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message
and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.

 

 

Dear Mr Burgoyne,

Official Information Act request 2289

We refer to your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for
information regarding the number of cases the Commerce Commission
(Commission) has taken to court; the number it ‘won’ or settled; and the
total received in fines or settlements for the periods  2002 to 2008; and
2008 to 2014.

On 24 October 2014 we responded to your request for the period 1 July 2008
to 1 June 2014. This letter sets out our response for the period 1 July
2002 to 30 June 2008.

We have searched through our database and available records, compiled a
register, cross referenced the results and we are now able to provide you
with the information for the period 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2008.

Notes on 2002 – 2008 information

As the Commission’s financial year runs from 1 July to 30 June, we have
included information spanning the period 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2008.

The information we have provided does not include judicial review
proceedings.

Where multiple parties were prosecuted within an investigation we have
counted each party separately.

Information released

The Commission has taken 192 cases to court between 1 July 2002 and 30
June 2008. This figure represents Commission proceedings where the outcome
resulted in a court judgment.

The Commission has ‘won’ in court, or settled out of court, 266 cases.
This figure includes settlements where court proceeding were never
initiated.

The Commission secured a total of $49,857,313 in fines and settlements, in
and out of court, between 1 July 2002 and 30 June 2008. This figure
consists of penalties imposed in the amount of $17,178,880, as well as
$32,678,433 in reparation and compensation paid to consumers.

We trust that this response satisfies your request. If you are not
satisfied with the Commission’s response to your OIA request, section
28(1) of the OIA provides you with the right to ask the Ombudsman to
investigate.

 

Yours sincerely,

Shani Gunawardana

Legal Support Officer

Commerce Commission

Phone 0800 943 600

 

The information contained in this e-mail may be legally privileged and
CONFIDENTIAL. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby
notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of
this message is prohibited.
If you have received this message in error, please delete the message
and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely
those of the author and are not those of the Commerce Commission.