James ['Jim'] Farmer practises as a barrister from Chambers in Auckland.
He is a Queen’s Counsel, admitted to practise as such in New Zealand, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. In addition, he has been admitted to appear on a case by case basis as a non-resident Queen’s Counsel in Hong Kong. He has University degrees from the University of Auckland – Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws with First Class Honours – and from the University of Cambridge – Ph.D, for which he was awarded the Yorke Prize. He has held academic positions at Auckland, including an appointment as a part-time Professor of Law, and Cambridge, where he was a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. His field of practice covers all areas of commercial law and public law. He is particularly known for the many appearances that he has made as counsel in competition (antitrust) law cases. More...

Latest Legal Commentary

  1. The Problem of the Supermarkets 05-Dec-2025 The current problem of the supermarket duopoly can be traced back to a Privy Council decision over 20 years ago ([2004] 1 NZLR 145) which cleared the way for Progressive Enterprises Limited (which operated the Countdown supermarkets) to acquire Woolworths (a competitor) over the protests of Foodstuffs, a second competitor which operated the New World, Pak ‘n Save and Four Square chains of stores. The effect was to reduce the number of competitors from three (normally considered sufficient to guarantee effective competition in a market) to two (normally recognised as giving rise to a state of a cosy duopoly). Progressive had More...

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