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Photo: Supplied There is very little public trust left in Foodstuffs North Island after being fined for using land covenants to block its rivals, a grocery advocacy chair says. The company was fined $3.25 million in the Wellington High Court for deliberately using covenants on land to hinder rivals after the practice came to light in a Commerce Commission market study in 2022. Grocery Action Group chair Suzanne Chetwin told Morning Report t the practice effectively prevented competitors from being able to set up in small towns and cities around the North Island. "This is where Foodstuffs would buy up land that could potentially be used by a competitor and they would put covenants on this land that would prevent them being able to be used as supermarkets. "Some of those covenants were o...

A US company is aiming to bring new camera technology to New Zealand buses, to help keep other vehicles out of bus lanes and bus stops. (File photo) Photo: Stuff / Ricky Wilson A US company that puts AI-enabled cameras on the front of buses to try to stop cars from blocking bus stops has entered the New Zealand market. Hayden AI has teamed up with Japanese owned NEC New Zealand. Their aim extends to policing bus and cycle lanes, and double-parking, "to improve road safety in New Zealand and Australia", a company statement said. NEC already has public transport contracts providing passenger information for buses in Canterbury, and signed a similar one worth up to $16.5m for Wellington last year Hayden AI claimed its system had sped up buses on monitored routes in New York, where it was i...

Prices have spiked this winter. Photo: 123rf The Electricity Authority (EA), under severe criticism over soaring wholesale power prices, says it is not "not comfortable" with power companies' explanations. Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones slammed the authority on Thursday as being useless in regulating the generator-retailers (gentailers), which are accused of profiteering. "Under the EA, sadly, that organisation has proven to be a chocolate teapot in regulating the excessive behaviour of the gentailers, who I feel are probably the most powerful economic institutions in New Zealand beyond the supermarkets and the Aussie banks." Energy Minister Simeon Brown also called for the Electricity Authority to publicly report power data to ensure there was no price-gouging in the sector. Who...

Electric Avenue is going from strength to strength, an organiser says, and will be expanded next year, for its tenth anniversary. Photo: Supplied / Electric Avenue The country's biggest one-day music festival will be a two day affair next year, organisers say. Electric Avenue will be held on 21 and 22 February when it returns to Christchurch's Hagley Park, to mark its ten year anniversary. Festival director Callam Mitchell is forecasting the event to be "the biggest party in Australasia ...Next year's festival will be the equivalent of this year's one on steroids." About 60,000 people are expected through the gates over two days, including 35,000 for the final day of the weekend, a Saturday. A post was shared on the event's social media channels on Wednesday, with an image displaying th...