Would this have been legal?

Tom Pullar-Strecker at Stuff reports:

Chorus made an expensive gamble in rejecting a deal that would have seen it paid just under $14 a month for wholesale copper broadband connections, according to sources close to the failed negotiations.

Chorus’ share price has been on the slide since the Commerce Commission proposed slashing the regulated price of wholesale copper broadband connections by about $12 a month to $8.93 in a draft decision in December.

But the company is understood to have chosen to take its chances persuading the commission to set a higher price or on government intervention.

It is understood all major telecommunications retailers agreed on the compromise price and Communications Minister Amy Adams, who would have had to regulate it over the head of the Commerce Commission, was informed.

The compromise was brokered by the Telecommunications Forum, whose chief executive, David Stone, declined to comment.

I’m not  lawyer, and welcome comment from lawyers who work with competition law. But I thought competitors couldn’t all sit down together and try to negotiate an agreed price level.

It didn’t eventuate in this case, but I think the possible precedent is somewhat alarming. The Commerce Commission is the appropriate body for pricing of monopoly utility services, not a private gathering of retailers with no input from consumers.