Vanessa Horne: Commerce Commission Competition, Fair Trading and Credit General Manager on the need for KiwiRail to compensate ferry customers

The Commerce Commission says it'll take KiwiRail to court if it doesn't compensate ferry customers.  

The rail provider's agreed to pay those disrupted in three Interislander cancellations in early 2023. 

KiwiRail had previously treated delays and cancellations from mechanical faults as out of their control, which the Commerce Commission argued misled customers.  

The Commission's Vanessa Horne told Mike Hosking KiwiRail should've taken action on its own accord.  

She says good businesses get ahead of the game to ensure customers are cared for. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hims and Iranians back together again this coming weekend in Rome.
So Jeremy Kenner on that Jodie Barns is there, So
jerm My Kenner literally for us shortly twenty three minutes
away from seven although the Interland fairy saga rolls on,
I assume, presumably until they replace them with new fairies
in a few years time. Back in twenty twenty three,
it was a shambles. You may remember. They had the
loss of power, the heat exchange issue, the gearbox that
wrigged happack. Anyway, the debate erupted over refunds for lost sailings.

(00:22):
Well now Kiwi Rail may have to compensate affected customers
after the Commerce Commissions had to look into it. Now
the Commons Commission's Competition, Fair Trading and Credit General manager
Vanessa Horns with us on this. Vanessa, good morning morning mate.
This stuff team seems to take time. This is two
years ago. You're but slow? Is that just the way
the wheels turn.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Wills turn is a little bit ironic in this case,
isn't it. Yeah, So things do take time. Good investigations
do take time. But in relations to the inter Island,
you may recall that Moritime New Zealand also had a
look at these incidents, so we needed to make sure
their really really important safety that was done first before
we could continue our work.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Can you make them refund or do you just encourage
them to refund?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Well, they've signed illegal undertaking with us this time, so
we can make them refund. If they don't follow through
with what they've agreed to do, then we can tack
them to court to enforce that undertaking. But looking at
their website this morning, they've already got information out there
about how people can get out and get that compensation
going through the system.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Should you have had to have done this? Should they not,
as a good corporate citizen, have done this themselves.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
With the oud of a job. Yeah, I mean, we
really really would love all businesses in New Zealand to
comply with US Trading Act and the Consumer Guarantees Act.
Really really important to look at those terms and conditions
and particularly things like this. You know, things do go wrong,
but you know, really good New Zealand businesses get ahead
of the game and make sure the systems in place

(01:54):
and get the course centers up and running and get
the money back through the consumers.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
When they can, can they get them? This goes to
airlines and things like that. So in concerts for that matter,
does small print negate your decision? If they'd had something
at the bottom said, look, stuff beyond our control, don't
worry about it. Can you get they get around it
their way?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
No, not at all. You know, some organizations try the
contract of these laws, but they can't. I think the
important thing for the inter Islander is that there were
some things that we're in their control, and that's sort
of what we've been working with them on. So those
mechanical things, you know, they should have been out there
fixing them. In which case, if it's things in the control,

(02:35):
then they've got to compensate consumers for those services that
they provide.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
So you like a court in the sense, is this
bespoke to them or is this a sector wide, industry
wide type vibe that everyone's going to have to run with.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I don't think. I mean, certainly we've looked at Bluebridge
and we've taken action with them. You know, we've got
action with Jetstar in relations to sort of similar sort
of I think you know where they in mechanical things
people do need to look at carefully what their terms
and conditions day, you know, and make sure that they
are offering the services. In the case of the interval

(03:11):
and they didn't have backup ships they could put people on,
and so in that case they couldn't provide the services
that people had paid money forward. So compensation is the
only thing that they can do.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Good stuff, Vanessa appreciated. Have a good East. Vanessa Horne,
who's the Commerce Commission Competition for Trading and Credit general Manager.
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