There are three key government organisations with responsibilities associated with competition law and policy in New Zealand:
- the New Zealand Commerce Commission
- the Ministry of Economic Development
- the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

The Commerce Commission

The Commerce Commission was established under the Commerce Act 1986. The Commerce Commission is an independent body that has responsibility for the enforcement of the Commerce Act, the Fair Trading Act 1986, the Electricity Industry Reform Act 1998, the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 and the Telecommunications Act 2001.

The independence of the Commerce Commission is intended to ensure that the Commission's operational policies and decisions will be applied fairly and consistently and in accordance with the objectives of the Acts, without influence by individual Ministers or the Government as a whole.

Further information relating to the structure of the Commerce Commission may be obtained from the Commerce Commission website http://www.comcom.govt.nz/.

The Ministry of Economic Development

The Competition Team of the Regulatory and Competition Policy Branch (http://www.med.govt.nz/about/rcpb.html), Ministry of Economic Development, has responsibility for providing policy advice to the Government on competition in all markets. The Resources and Networks Branch http://www.med.govt.nz/about/res_net.html
has specialist expertise and responsibilities in the areas of electricity http://www.med.govt.nz/ers/electric.html, gas http://www.med.govt.nz/ers/gas.html , oil http://www.med.govt.nz/ers/oil_pet.html , telecommunications http://www.med.govt.nz/pbt/telecom.html and postal services, http://www.med.govt.nz/pbt/post_pol.html who co-ordinate with the Competition Team on relevant competition issues.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs is made up of four sections:
- the Consumer Information Service
- the Energy Safety Service
- the Policy Unit
- the Trading Standards Service
Please refer to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs web site http://www.consumer-ministry.govt.nz/ for a fuller explanation of the functions and structure of this Ministry.