Commerce Commission's plea regarding the imposition of the 0867 prefix by Telecom on competitors like Clear Communications was dismissed by the New Zealand Supreme Court.

In a development that took place in 1999, Telecom had enforced 0867prefix on competitors in order to limit its losses and to check competition. The argument that had been presented by The Commerce Commission was that the application of the prefix by Telecom was constricting the commission's duties as applicable in section 36 of the Commerce Act.

Section 36 of The Commerce Act has been framed to make sure that dominant Companies don't use their power to limit the growth of their competitors through unethical means.

According to the Court, Telecom had not used its dominance in the market to change the prefix on competitors. The Court also stated that Telecom would have done the same thing had it not been a dominant player in a hypothetical market.

The Court had asked the Commission to prove that Telecom would not have applied the prefix had it not been a dominant player in a hypothetical market, which the Commission failed to prove.

The Court also stated that what Telecom had done would have been done by any Company, as it had applied the prefix on lesser competitors in order to ease the traffic of calls, as Telecom's network had become congested, with dominantly one way calls from home-phone numbers to ISPs.