Labour Says It Would Stop Big Companies Overcharging for Food and Fuel
Labour would make it illegal for big, powerful companies to overcharge for essentials like food and fuel if it wins the election.
Leader Chris Hipkins made the promise. It would not apply to all shops and businesses. It would apply only to essentials, including food, power, fuel, transport, telecommunications, banking and insurance, according to the party's policy document RNZ. Telecommunications here means phone and internet services.
The test would be market power. That means a company can set high prices because people have no real choice. It is like the only dairy in a small town. The document says the law would catch firms where customers cannot shop elsewhere, suppliers have nowhere else to sell, or new competitors find it hard to start up.
Labour's commerce and consumer affairs spokesperson Arena Williams said 97 percent of New Zealand businesses are small and would not be affected. Williams said similar rules are already used in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and Australia.
Hipkins was opposition leader in September 2026. He said in early September the party was focused on fixing cost-of-living problems Reuters. He also said he would be prime minister in any coalition government involving Labour.
Looking at what this means for the election, the promise gives Labour a clear rule to put with its cost-of-living message. It separates large providers of essentials from other businesses. Labour has set the list and the market-power test. It has not put the full detail before Parliament. Under MMP, the system where parties often must work together to govern, it would need support from other parties. MPs would also check the draft law line by line.
In my view, the list does a lot of the work. Food and fuel come first because families pay them every week. The other essentials widen it. The market-power test then narrows it to big firms with no real rivals.
The broader context here is coalition politics. Hipkins says he would lead any government Labour joins. This pledge is a starting point for talks. It is not a finished law.
