The Commerce Commission is investigating possible anti-competitive behaviour between two state-funded weather forecasters, who essentially do the same job. A spokesman for the commission said it had opened an investigation under the Commerce Act. ​WeatherWatch chief executive Philip Duncan claimed Niwa and MetService picked "winners and losers with as a way for them to powerfully limit competition in the private sector". MetService said it did not yet have any detailed information about the investigation, but it would "fully co-operate with all investigations led by the Commerce Commission on this matter". A report the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment released in January last year into public access to both MetService and Niwa weather data their restrictions on data were far tougher than in the United States, Norway, Australia, the United Kingdom and France.

Source: Stuff September 30, 2019 01:52 UTC