31 Mar 2011

Commerce Commission denies u-turn on milk inquiry

4:30 pm on 31 March 2011

The Commerce Commission denies it has done a u-turn by deciding to investigate whether there should be an inquiry into the retail price of milk.

The commission says that, after receiving a number of complaints about the high retail price of milk, it's doing a preliminary analysis of whether a full price control inquiry is warranted

Last week, the commission's chair, Mark Berry, told Parliament's commerce select committee it saw no reason at that stage to launch an inquiry.

But he also told the committee the commission had an open mind on the issue and had invited Consumer New Zealand, which has been leading a campaign calling for price controls on milk, to make submissions.

The commission says it received complaints from dairy industry interests after that, and is now doing what it told the committee it would do, which is to consider any information it received.