We are pleased to welcome Antonia Horrocks to Webb Henderson’s competition, consumer and regulatory team, based in our Auckland office. She has over 25 years’ experience in competition, consumer and economic regulatory law and policy, at competition agencies and leading law firms. Antonia started her career in the competition team at a leading New Zealand law firm before heading to London and Brussels, where she worked at leading US and UK law firms, and then moved to a senior role at the UK Competition and Markets Authority, managing complex merger inquiries and competition enforcement cases from both sides of the enforcement spectrum.
Antonia’s most recent role was as General Manager of the Competition Branch at the Commerce Commission, which she held until 2024. In that role she was responsible for the Commission’s competition enforcement, merger control, cartel, market studies and competition engagement functions, and, for a period, the Consumer and Credit functions. She assisted in implementing changes to the Commerce Act 1986, Fair Trading Act 1986 and the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003, including the introduction of new provisions relating to market power, market studies, cartel criminalisation, unfair contract terms and unconscionability, and was responsible for teams conducting enforcement action in relation to these statutes, and for the development of external guidance.
While at the Commission, Antonia also led the development of the Competition Assessment Guidelines, a tool to help policy officials in New Zealand understand how proposals may impact on competition in markets. She has presented on competition and consumer protection in a range of domestic settings including at universities, conferences, schools, government departments, business groups and to individual businesses, MPs and Select Committees. She also has global experience, publicly discussing topical competition and consumer issues including at sessions hosted by the International Competition Network, International Bar Association, APEC, and ASEAN. Through this she has a strong working understanding of where New Zealand’s competition law fits in the scheme of wider regulatory enforcement globally, having worked closely with international regulators throughout her career.
Welcome Antonia!