As a result of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in New Zealand, Chorus issued a force majeure notice under several of our contractual arrangements with our customers.  This force majeure notice ceased on the 24th June 2020.

The notice recognised that our ability to meet service levels was impacted by this force majeure event.  As a result, the methodology used for the calculation of service level performance and any service level rebates was changed.

 [Important note: If you are not sure whether you received the force majeure cessation notice or haven’t received the notice, please contact Erika Morrin as soon as possible.]

What’s happening

The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in New Zealand impacted the work we are able to do in connecting New Zealanders to our network, that impact has now mainly passed, and we are ending the notice. 

The force majeure notice was important as it meant we were excused from those contractual obligations we couldn’t meet due to the force majeure event – for the duration of that event.  The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand constituted such an event, which was beyond our reasonable control and limited our ability to carry out our normal business.

In the original update we provided an indication of how this event may impact service levels, our reporting on those and associated rebates. While this impact has ceased, you will still see affected orders that were submitted before or during the period of the notice flow through the system to completion.

Next steps

If you have any queries, please get in touch with either Alan Mitford-Taylor or Hannah Croft