Telecom has been found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour for using its substantial power to prevent and deter competition in the business-to-business high-speed data transmission market, the High Court at Auckland has found.

High-speed data transmission services allow businesses to transmit large amounts of data between different offices, or to other businesses, using private networks.

Telecom ISP Xtra's breaches of the Fair Trading Act have cost it $55,000.

In the Wellington District Court today Xtra (now called Telecom Broadband) was convicted on three charges of misrepresenting to complainants its pricing, conditions attached to its services, and its billing systems being approved by the Commerce Commission. It was fined $45,000 and ordered to pay $10,000 costs.

All were in situations from September 2005 to November 2006 where customers challenged the validity of Xtra’s charges or conditions

The second largest fine for breaching the Smoke Free legislation has been imposed on a Northland hotel.

When court costs were factored in, the Kaikohe Hotel was ordered by the District Court to pay just under $7000 after being found guilty of failing to stop patrons smoking in its bars.

The Kaikohe Hotel had been the subject of a number of public complaints that it did nothing to stop people who were smoking in the bars on repeated occasions.

The Ministry of Health and the Northland District Health Board collected evidence and brought a prosecution.

Wellington real estate firm Celestine Realty has been fined $7500 for breaching the Fair Trading Act by using the term “buyer enquiry over” followed by a price that the agent knew the vendor would not accept.

The fine, handed down today in the Wellington District Court, follows the agent Tim Whitehead receiving the same penalty in the Hastings District Court last year.

He advertised a property for sale using the phrase “buyer enquiry over $380,000” when he knew the vendor would accept no less than $400,000 net of agent’s commission.