ComCom Fights Back Against Cognitive Surrender With New State Of Competition Report

AUCKLAND — Monopoly Watch New Zealand (MWNZ) warmly welcomes the Commerce Commission's first-ever State of Competition in New Zealand – 2026 report as a decisive, evidence-driven rejection of the defeatist doctrine that New Zealand is simply too small and too remote to expect genuine competition in its most important industries.

For too long, corporate incumbents and their lobbyists have promoted what MWNZ calls 'Cognitive Surrender' — the argument that monopoly and duopoly in capital-intensive and platform industries are an unavoidable fact of NZ geography and market size. The Commerce Commission has now placed 22 years of hard data on the table that proves otherwise. That data demands action.

MWNZ POSITION

"The Commerce Commission has done its job. It has armed New Zealand with the evidence. Now Parliament must arm the Commerce Commission with the powers — and protect it from lobbyists — so the evidence can be translated into lower prices, more choices, and a fairer economy for every New Zealander."

A long-standing, bipartisan mandate

The Commerce Commission's mandate to promote competition is not a political preference of any single party — it is a long-standing, legislated commitment supported by successive governments of both the left and the right since the Commerce Act 1986. National, Labour, ACT, the Greens and NZ First have each directed market studies, expanded the Commission's powers, and responded to its findings.

MWNZ's position on the 2026 election cycle is clear: the debate must be about which market studies should be conducted — not whether market studies should be permitted. The Commission's mandate, its tools, and its independence must be treated as settled, cross-party foundations of economic policy.

The contested — and legitimate — questions for this election cycle:

• Banking: Challenger Banking introduction removal of l barriers in personal banking
• Energy: Vertical integration in generator-retailers fixed ( broken up )
• Insurance: A dedicated market study — never yet undertaken
• Aviation: airports and domestic airlines A full market study,
• Supermarkets: Break up ,and introduction of a 3rd distribution center ecosystem
• Digital platforms: A comprehensive review of platform monopolies, link taxes, and advertising markets and Journalist remuneration

What the evidence shows: sector by sector

The report draws on 22 years of Stats NZ individual business data. Commerce Commission Chair Dr John Small described the result as 'mixed': concentration has edged down on average, but competitive pressure has weakened in large parts of the economy.

Banking

Financial and insurance services ranked among the four least competitive industries over the full period. NZ's four Australian-owned banks hold ~90% of assets; combined profits of ~3% of GDP in 2022 exceeded electricity, supermarkets and construction combined — a prima facie case of inadequate competition, and a tax on kiwis paid to Aussies .

Supermarkets

The grocery duopoly is structural and enduring. The 2022 market study found competition was not working effectively. Costs cascade upstream to households at a time when the cost of living is the public's top concern, a 3rd distribution network is required

Energy

Electricity, gas, water and waste services showed the weakest competitive pressure — consistently across two decades. Vertical integration of generator-retailers produces returns for shareholders rather than lower power bills for consumers.

Insurance & aviation

Insurance showed the fastest deterioration among all sectors 1 operator owns over 55% mkt share , using multiple brands to cover their dominance. Aviation is the starkest case: Air New Zealand holds ~86% domestic market share with Auckland Airport owning 88% of all Air Freight and 81% of all international passenger traffic— the world's most concentrated aviation market — yet no full market study has ever been conducted.

WHY COGNITIVE SURRENDER FAILS

The OECD benchmarks New Zealand against comparable small, advanced economies — and finds our incumbents' advantages are policy choices, not geographic destiny. Countries smaller than NZ, equally remote, have more competitive banking, energy and aviation markets. Cognitive Surrender is a lobbying strategy, not an economic law.

Digital platforms: New Zealand's unaddressed monopoly problem

New Zealand stands out internationally not just for weak competition in traditional capital-intensive industries, but for a near-total absence of regulatory attention to digital platform monopolies — an oversight that is costing consumers, small businesses, and the journalism that underpins our democracy.

The journalism crisis: failure to implement link taxes and advertising monopolies are destroying Journalist integrity

New Zealand is an outlier among comparable OECD nations in failing to enact a News Media Bargaining Code or link tax legislation. Australian, Canadian, and European frameworks have compelled Google and Meta to negotiate and pay for the journalistic content that drives traffic to their platforms and powers their advertising revenues. New Zealand journalists and news publishers receive nothing.

The advertising duopoly of Google and Meta captures the overwhelming majority of digital advertising revenue in New Zealand. This revenue was historically the economic foundation of independent journalism. As it has migrated to platforms that neither produce nor pay for news content, newsrooms have collapsed, regional journalism has been gutted, and the democratic accountability function of the press has been severely weakened.

Journalists need to get paid properly, for their investigations, their clarity and their universal sense of social justice , Its not ok for Journalists to have to join a corporate lobby group so they can feed their kids

MWNZ calls for: mandatory bargaining legislation modelled on Australia's News Media Bargaining Code, and an immediate Commerce Commission market study into digital advertising markets.

Digital merchandise: the secondary market monopoly problem

New Zealand is an international outlier in platform monopoly concentration across key digital merchandise and secondary market categories. Unlike comparable economies, New Zealand consumers and small businesses face near-monopoly or duopoly conditions in:

• Real estate listings — a single dominant platform exercises market power over both vendors and agencies, extracting monopoly rents from what is effectively essential infrastructure for the housing market
• Automotive secondary markets — platform consolidation has left consumers and dealers with minimal competitive alternatives for used vehicle transactions
• General online merchandise and classified advertising — the absence of competitive alternatives locks consumers and small businesses into platforms that set terms unilaterally

MWNZ calls for: a dedicated digital platforms market study by the Commerce Commission, examining real estate, automotive, and general merchandise platforms — with specific attention to interoperability requirements, data portability, non-discrimination obligations, and the viability of mandatory access regimes.

THE DIGITAL PLATFORM BLIND SPOT

The Commerce Commission's report establishes that competition agencies internationally are increasingly deploying access requirements, interoperability mandates, and non-discrimination rules. New Zealand has not applied these tools to its most egregious platform monopolies. The real estate listings market, automotive classifieds, and digital advertising are sectors where a small number of platforms extract significant economic rents from New Zealand consumers and businesses — with no credible competitive threat and no regulatory framework to address it. This is Cognitive Surrender in digital form.

Strengthening the Commission: powers and protection

Powers the Commission needs

• Binding market investigation powers — remedies, not just recommendations
• 90-day statutory Government response deadline
• Expanded self-initiation rights where baseline data shows clear failure
• Interim measures to protect consumers during lengthy studies
• Mandatory pricing and cost disclosure in concentrated sectors
• Digital platform-specific tools: interoperability, data portability, non-discrimination

Lobbyist control legislation

• Lobbying Disclosure and Registration Act — covering all contact with Ministers, officials and the Commission
• 3 year cooling-off: no senior ComCom or MBIE officials to regulated industries
• Public interest standing for consumer organisations and journalism bodies
• Annual Select Committee hearing on competition outcomes
• Prohibition on platform lobbyists taking roles in Commission or MBIE competition teams

The pattern is consistent across both traditional and digital industries: the Commission's evidence recommends reform; lobbying delays it; consumers and small businesses pay. Lobbyist control legislation is not anti-business — it is pro-competition and pro-consumer. Lobbyists pursue Business feudalism businesses with regulatory and public policy moats around them , Consumers want working capitalism , where there is competition for their business .

MWNZ's six calls to action

1. Implement the State of Competition report as an annual instrument of accountability — OECD benchmarking and mandatory Government response.
2. Grant the Commerce Commission binding market investigation powers — so evidence demands structural remedies the Commission can actually impose.
3. Commission a personal insurance market study and initiate a full aviation market study — both sectors show persistent structural failure.
4. Accelerate grocery wholesale access and issue Challenger Banking Licenses — the studies are done; the reforms must not be lobbied into indefinite delay.
5. Legislate a News Media Bargaining Code — compelling dominant digital platforms to pay for NZ journalistic content — and initiate a digital advertising market study.
6. Initiate a digital platforms market study examining real estate, automotive, and general merchandise monopolies — and enact Lobbyist Registration and Disclosure legislation.

The Commerce Commission has fought back from Cognitive Surrender with evidence.
New Zealand's Parliament and Government must now fight back with action.

About MWNZ

Monopoly Watch New Zealand is an independent consumer advocacy organisation promoting effective competition in New Zealand's key industries — stronger competition law, greater transparency, and consumer interests over incumbent market power.

© Scoop Media