Leading Case Law
The Commerce Commission's "air cargo" proceedings allege contraventions of s27 via s30 of the Commerce Act 1986 by a number of major airlines (including Air New Zealand), for reaching and implementing agreements to fix the price of fuel and security surcharges on cargo carried from New Zealand to overseas regions, and from overseas regions to New Zealand, between 2000 and 2006. In the first stage of a split trial, Justice Asher (sitting with Professor Richardson) held that airlines supplying inbound air cargo services to New Zealand do so in competition with each in New Zealand, and that there is a market in New Zealand for air cargo services from an overseas country or region to New Zealand. The case will now proceed to the second stage of trial, where the alleged price-fixing conduct will be determined.
Meredith Connell has successfully argued a significant case dealing with the priority contest between preferential creditors and secured creditors in relation to the concept of 'accounts receivable' in the Companies Act and the Personal Property Securities Act 1999: see Burns and Agnew v Commissioner of Inland Revenue (High Court, Auckland CIV-2010-404-7387, 10 August 2011).