Snapper Classic complaint rejected

The organisers of the 90 Mile Beach Snapper Bonanza, first staged in 2010 when the long-running Snapper Classic was cancelled, have unsuccessfully appealed to the Commerce Commission to force the owners of the former competition to desist from advertising annual tournaments that do not take place.

The last Snapper Classic was staged in 2009, but five-day surfcasting tournaments have been promoted via the internet every year since, Snapper Bonanza organisers saying some would-be supporters of their event had booked flights and accommodation, only to be disappointed.

They tended to be unimpressed when they found that the competition would not be proceeding, Bonanza spokesman John Stewart said, and in every case that he was aware of had been unable to change their plans to contest the Bonanza.

The Bonanza organisers lodged a complaint with the Commerce Commission last year, under the Fair Trading Act 1986, but has been told no action will be taken.

The commission had completed its investigation and would not be taking any further action "at this time", senior investigator Fa'amoana Pa'o said, given that no evidence had been found that the Snapper Classic (Ninety Mile Beach) had breached the Act.

The commission had asked the Bonanza organisers for specific evidence to support allegations that Ninety Mile Beach had been under investigation for issues including failure to produce prizes, and that the Bonanza had been mistakenly blamed for promoting tournaments then cancelling them.

(The Northland Age has sighted an email from an Australian woman, complaining that she had "spoken to you a couple of months ago" and had been assured that the 2014 Snapper Bonanza would take place over March 4-8. She had booked accommodation, flights and a rental car, "only to find out that we are going over for nothing." The Bonanza will take place over March 18-22.

("Shut your stupid website down, as this has totally stuffed us up," she added.)

The Snapper Classic website advised yesterday that its 2014 competition had been cancelled.

The commission noted, as relevant to its decision, that Ninety Mile Beach had confirmed that it advertised and ran an annual fishing competition, the $250,000 Snapper Classic, and had been doing so since 1980, although there were no tournaments in 2010, 2011 or 2012. The cancellation of a tournament was announced on its website five to six months in advance, prior to the purchase of tickets.

Ninety Mile Beach kept records of its contestants, and all who entered competitions that did not take place received full refunds (although it had not taken entry fees for cancelled tournaments).

The company totally denied all accusations by the Bonanza organisers.

The commission's decision not to proceed would not affect the rights of other parties to take their own action under the Act, Mr Pa'o added.

Mr Stewart doubted the Bonanza's financial ability to take action against Ninety Mile Beach on its own behalf, and didn't see why it should have to, although he had doubt that there was significant confusion as amongst potential competitors as to which event was which, and that the Bonanza was being unfairly tarnished and losing competitors.

"The Classic hasn't run since 2009, and will never run again," he said, "and we regularly hear from Australians in particular who have booked for the wrong comp and can't afford to change their flights.

"We took over when the Classic went bust in 2010, but people still get it muddled up with our competition. The website is misleading and damaging to an event that is very important to the Far North.

"We can't see any other reason for them doing this than trying to make it hard for us, and we reckon the Commerce Commission should be doing something about that."