Labour has promised to ban big companies from charging excessive prices, if elected.
Leader Chris Hipkins said a handful of big businesses were guilty of price gouging – that is, charging more than necessary for essential items.
“Right now, a company big enough to dodge competition can charge excessive prices for the basics, like food and fuel, and there’s no law against it,” he said.
“Labour will change that, by making it illegal for big powerful companies to rip off New Zealanders on the essentials.”
Commerce and consumer affairs spokesperson Arena Williams said 97 percent of New Zealand businesses were small, and would not be affected by the policy.
“It also only applies in markets for essentials, like food, power, fuel, transport, telecommunications banking, and insurance,” she said.
Labour’s policy document said the law would apply where a company had enough market power that customers could not realistically shop elsewhere, suppliers had nowhere else to go, or new competitors struggled to enter the market.
The full policy includes:
Williams said similar rules were already in place in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, and Australia.