48OMaintenance of privilege

1. If the Commission provides to an overseas regulator, for the purpose of assisting the overseas regulator to perform its fair trading law functions, a communication or information in respect of which the Commission has any privilege referred to in section 54, 56, or 57 of the Evidence Act 2006, the Commission is not to be taken as having waived its privilege in relation to that communication or information merely by providing it to the overseas regulator.

2. If the Commission receives from an overseas regulator, for the purpose of assisting the Commission to perform its fair trading law functions under this Act, a communication or information that, under the law of the country of the overseas regulator is subject to a privilege analogous to a privilege of a kind referred to in section 54, 56, or 57 of the Evidence Act 2006, that communication or information is subject to the analogous privilege in New Zealand, and the Evidence Act 2006 applies accordingly.

3. The Commission must not provide a communication or information that is subject to the privilege referred to in section 57 of the Evidence Act 2006 (which relates to settlement negotiation and mediation) to an overseas regulator unless every other party that has a privilege in relation to that communication or information consents to the Commission providing the communication or information to the overseas regulator.

4. To avoid doubt, this section applies whether or not a communication or information is provided under a co-operation arrangement.