Business Law Library & Tracker
Selected Business Law Cases
Short explainers for court decisions that change how New Zealand businesses handle contracts, staff, customers, IP and company duties.
Sources last reviewed 17 Aug 2026
Main law guides
158
Acts, regulations and codes worth reading first
Topics
60
Plain-English clusters
Published case explainers
97
Selected cases with a business lesson
Tracked updates
11
New, amended & reviewed
Plain-English explainers, not legal advice. Use the linked official source for section-level detail, and get advice for your situation.
Get legal helpLodge Real Estate Ltd v Commerce Commission
Competitors should not coordinate how they will pass on costs, set fees or respond to a supplier price change. Even informal industry discussions can create...
Riki Scott Steen Walls v Ulsterman Holdings Limited (In Liquidation)
The practical lesson is direct. If you are served with court proceedings, especially by liquidators, do not wait for a second warning. In this case, the defendant...
Affco New Zealand Limited v New Zealand Meat Workers and Related Trades Union Inc and Others
If your business relies on returning seasonal staff, do not assume the off-season gives you a clean slate to reset employment terms. This case shows that where...
Anna Elizabeth Osborne and Sonya Lynne Rockhouse v Worksafe New Zealand
Keep two tracks separate after a serious workplace event. One track is victim support, compensation, apologies and practical assistance. The other is the...
McIntosh v Fisk
Money received before a collapse is not automatically safe. Liquidators may distinguish between value genuinely supplied and apparent profit generated only by an...
David Charles Browne v David Ross Petterson as Liquidator of Polyethylene Pipe Systems Limited (in liq)
Read this case as a caution about timing, purpose and records. It is not a broad rule that every insider payment or shareholder security is invalid. The lesson is...
John Gilbert and QSM Trustees Limited (in receivership and in liquidation) v Body Corporate 162791
Read this case as a strong warning rather than a neat bright-line rule. Do not assume body corporate levies are just an old debt that stays with the owner company...
Mobil Oil NZ Ltd v Development Auckland Ltd
A general make-good clause may not allocate expensive contamination or structural remediation risk. Commercial leases for industrial or higher-risk sites should...
Prattley Enterprises Limited v Vero Insurance New Zealand Limited
For business owners, the main lesson is to check what your property policy really covers before a loss happens and again before you settle a claim. In this case,...
Sportzone Motorcycles Limited (in liquidation) and Motor Trade Finances Limited v Commerce Commission
The practical lesson from this case is to build each fee from the event that triggers it. If a fee is charged when a loan is set up, the business should be able to...
Allied Concrete Ltd v Meltzer
If a customer is in financial trouble, getting paid is not always the end of the story. Suppliers should keep evidence of ordinary trading, value given and what...
New Zealand Fire Service Commission v Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand Incorporated & Vero New Zealand Limited
Do not assume a levy or similar statutory charge will always track the way your insurance programme is packaged. In this case, the Supreme Court focused closely on...
Vikram Kumar and Nirupama Kumar v Station Properties Limited (in liquidation and in receivership)
For business owners, the core lesson is simple: do not assume you can enforce a contract just because the other side has stopped cooperating. Before issuing a...
Chuan Wu v Body Corporate 366611 and Theta Management Limited
If your business owns or occupies premises in a unit title development, do not treat access control as just an operational issue. It is tied to property rights,...
Firm PI 1 Limited v Zurich Australian Insurance Limited
A replacement-value label does not protect a business from an inadequate sum insured or an unclear interaction with statutory and other insurance. Check both the...
University of Canterbury v The Insurance Council of New Zealand Inc
For business owners, the main lesson is that building compliance, insurance exposure and reinstatement costs often turn on the exact wording of the statute, not...
BFSL 2007 Ltd & Ors (In Liquidation) v Steigrad
If your business buys D&O or similar liability cover, do not assume the policy limit will be freely available both to defend the claim and to pay any eventual...
P (SC 87/2012) v Bridgecorp Ltd (In Receivership and in Liquidation)
If your business uses settlement deeds, payment plans or workout arrangements, this case is a reminder to draft enforcement documents carefully. A pre-signed...
Evgeny Orlov v Anza Distributing (NZ) Limited (In liquidation) and USG Interiors Pacific Limited
If your business wants both settlement certainty and an appellate ruling, do not assume you can safely settle first and appeal later. This case shows that once a...
Vector Gas Limited v Bay of Plenty Energy Limited
A short interim agreement can carry major financial consequences. Define whether a quoted price includes delivery, tax, third-party fees and other pass-through...
Tiny Intelligence Limited v Resport Limited
Winning an IP claim is only part of the strategy. The owner may need to choose between compensation for its loss and recovery of the infringer's profit, and that...
Commerce Commission v Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd
For ordinary businesses, the practical lesson is not about dairy valuation theory. It is about how regulated pricing and supply obligations work in real life. If...
Peterson Portable Sawing Systems Limited In Liquidation and Anor v Lucas and Anor
For business owners, the durable lesson is not about sawmills as such. It is about how fragile an intellectual property position can be if the legal claim is wider...
Telecom Mobile Limited v The Commerce Commission
Read this case as a lesson in sales design, not as a current compliance manual. The durable point is that courts will look closely at when and where the customer...
James Bryson v Three Foot Six Limited
A contractor agreement cannot carry an employment model that operates in the opposite way. New Zealand businesses should review the contract and daily reality...