NEW ZEALAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Liz Blythe, Troy Pilkington, Emma Peterson and Craig Shrive, Russell McVeagh
sourcing for more details; and (ii) business process outsourcing in areas such as call centres, HR, payroll and finance, as discussed further in 1.2 Business Pro- cess Outsourcing (BPO) . 2. Regulatory Environment 2.1 Restrictions on Technology Transactions or Outsourcing Outsourcing and technology transactions are not separately regulated in New Zealand. Rather, whether a particular outsourcing arrangement or technology transaction will be the subject of a specific regulatory regime largely depends on the customer’s industry and the specific nature of the arrangement, including details of the customer, industry and type of outsourc - ing or technology transaction. While not relating to outsourcing or technology trans - actions specifically, New Zealand’s competition law (contained in the Commerce Act 1986) contains a pro - hibition against entering into or giving effect to a con - tract, arrangement or understanding that contains a “cartel provision” – that is, a provision between actual or potential competitors that has the purpose, effect or likely effect of: • fixing, maintaining, or controlling the price of goods/services that the parties supply or acquire in competition with each other (known as “price fixing”); • allocating the people or geographic areas that the parties would otherwise supply to, or buy from, in competition with each other (known as “market allocation”); and/or • restricting the supply or acquisition of goods or services that the parties supply or acquire in com - petition with each other (known as “output restric - tion”). These prohibitions could apply to an outsourcing agreement or other technology agreements where the provider of the relevant services is also a com - petitor of the customer of those services. A breach of the Commerce Act can occur even without a written agreement – an informal understanding or expectation between competitors that they will act (or refrain from
However, it is becoming increasingly common in IT and BPO outsourcing transactions for customers to require the supplier to utilise appropriate AI and/or other new technologies as continuous improvement initiatives as the technologies become available in the market. This trend is expected to continue in the AI space, particularly in light of New Zealand’s recent - ly introduced National AI Strategy which promotes organisational adoption of AI. Additionally, the gov - ernment has indicated it will use an “agile” regulatory method, leveraging current frameworks and introduc - ing new legislation to address emerging AI risks as required. The government has also issued guidance for biometrics regarding the adoption of AI, providing further certainty. Key new regulatory developments in the new technol - ogy space include: • the Digital Identity Trust Framework Act 2023, which is aimed at developing digital identity ser - vices that are trusted and people-centric; • the Customer and Product Data Act 2025, which has established a consumer data right framework for New Zealand; • the release by New Zealand’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) of guidance in September 2023 in relation to the use of AI and the Information Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 2020; and • the OPC’s release in August 2025 of a Biometric Processing Privacy Code; • as noted above, the government’s National AI Strategy released in July 2025; and • as part of the National AI Strategy noted above, the release of several guidance documents to sup - port public and private sector agencies in using AI, including: (a) Responsible AI Guidance for the Public Ser - vice; (b) Public Sector AI Framework; and (c) Responsible AI Guidance for Businesses. 1.4 Outsourced Services The most commonly outsourced services in New Zea - land are (i) information technology services (such as IT infrastructure, network management, hosting ser - vices, cybersecurity services, software development, support and maintenance services) – see 1.1 IT Out-
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