The Commerce Commission says it has eight areas which it will focus on in the coming year.

Commission Chair Anna Rawlings has told the Commission’s competition and regulation conference, Competition Matters 2019, that there are four broad groups of priorities this year - enduring priorities, focus areas, connecting and legislative change.

“Enduring priorities are the areas the Commission will always regard as a priority due to their potential to have a significant impact on consumers, business or markets in New Zealand or because they are a core part of our statutory role," she says.

"These include credit issues, product safety, merger clearances and functions in critical infrastructure industries like energy and telecommunications.”

Each year the Commission targets its resources on specific areas which are important to everyday life and the economy. This year there are eight focus areas:

• Environmental claims;
• Online retail;
• Motor vehicle financing and related add-ons;
• Educating traders about conduct that may contravene cartel laws;
• Consulting on and completing the fuel market study;
• Resetting the five-year revenue limits and quality standards for electricity networks;
• Monitoring and reporting on telecommunications retail service quality;
• New up-front regulatory rules for fibre broadband services.

A more detailed outline of the priorities is available here.