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The Commerce Commission is to issue guidelines on making school uniform sales comply with the competition rules.
The move comes as a legal row over such sales gathers momentum in South Auckland.
The Uniform Shoppe has said it will ignore what it says are threats from Rosehill College in Papakura of a legal injunction to stop the shop selling the college's uniforms.
Uniform Shoppe managing director Janet Igrisan says the college was in breach of the Commerce Act.
Commerce Commission spokeswoman Allanah Kalafatelis, said the commission was not directly investigating the Rosehill College case.
But she said there had been many complaints over the years about the supply of school uniforms.
"The commission decided to investigate across the industry because there have been widespread issues," Ms Kalafatelis said.
"We will be releasing guidelines within the next two weeks so schools will know how to enter into contracts that don't breach the Commerce Act."
Rosehill College said on its website it was the sole supplier of uniforms, and uniforms from other retailers might not meet its specifications.
But the Uniform Shoppe says it can sell the uniforms more cheaply than the school's own shop, and the threats made it even more determined to continue to sell school uniforms.
Ms Igrisan, whose store supplies uniforms to 32 Auckland-area schools and hundreds around the country, said Rosehill College was acting in a "monopolistic manner" and was in breach of the Commerce Act.
"What is so desperately sad about this whole issue is the school's apparent total insensitivity towards the needs of some parents to save money."
- NZPA
