Independent windscreen repairers demand action - again - from Commerce Commission
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
Insurance work accounts for about 10% of Canterbury windscreen installer Tony McLelland’s business ‒ about five jobs a week ‒ but, he says, “it should be five a day”.
Customers are not aware that regardless of their insurer, they have the right to choose any glass installer to replace their windscreen once it cracks, chips or breaks. But generally, the insurance company ‒ one of the two dominating the insurance market ‒ steers them to Novus or Smith & Smith.
McLelland said if it was not for his regular customers, such as car rental firms and panel beaters, he would not have a business, “because we're just not getting insurance work through”.
He is speaking out as part of an effort to once more get the Commerce Commission to take action over a windscreen repair market heavily skewed to big and interconnected market players.
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After trying three years ago, independents want the consumer watchdog to again consider investigating the close relationship between market giant Novus and its related invoicing outfit, Auto Glass Claims, a relationship that means about 80% of all window repairs in the country are ultimately to the benefit of glass companies Novus and Smith & Smith.
At the heart of their complaints is that the country’s two largest insurance companies, IAG and Suncorp, are “steering” customers away from independent repairers and towards Novus and Smith & Smith ‒ their preferred repairers.
IAG owns the State, NZI and AMI insurance brands. And Suncorp, which owns Vero, also has a majority stake in AA Insurance. Together the Australian insurance heavyweights own the lion’s share of household insurance, and both pay Auto Glass Claims to manage auto glass repair invoicing.
Auto Glass Claims is owned by NZ Autoglazing Limited, trading as Novus CMS, and is responsible for managing and co-ordinating auto glass insurance claims, invoices, and quotes on behalf of the insurers.
Repairers say when they are given an insurance job, they are subjected to potentially unfair market pricing power from Auto Glass Claims, which sees what they are charging.
The repairers say that puts Auto Glass Claims in a position to dictate pricing and terms, including taking a long time to approve invoices and refusing to pay unless repairers reduced their charges.
The commission previously assessed the industry’s complaints but decided to take no further action, determining that the arrangement between IAG and Auto Glass Claims was unlikely to breach the Commerce Act.
Chris Kearns, of industry group New Zealand Auto Glass, said repairers did not disagree with the idea of a company that administered invoicing for the insurance companies and ensuring invoices were fair and reasonable.
“The issue we have is the fact that it is owned by Novus.
“The biggest issue is that AGC has the same directors as Novus Windscreens.” He said a family member of a Novus’ director and shareholder worked for Auto Glass Claims and regularly challenged invoices from auto glass installers.
The claim was put to Auto Glass Claims director John Armstrong, who did not comment on it. But he told The Post the company provided an independent claims management service for various insurers.
“The system is designed to ensure a prompt, consistent and efficient approach to the management of various claim administration processes, which benefits the insurers, their customers and the repairers.
“Ultimately, decisions as to fair and reasonable costs for repairs are made by the relevant insurance companies,” he said.
But Kearns said “all our invoices go to what we feel is Novus, and they come back and say this job is too expensive, we need you to drop your price by $100”.
“It isn't fair that our competition is seeing everything we do and can try and beat us down on price,” he said. “Our primary concern is the apparent conflict of interest within the current arrangement.
“While we appreciate that AGC's role is to manage claims on behalf of insurers, we struggle to understand how it is appropriate for individuals connected to a major industry competitor to have access to the quotations, pricing, and invoicing information of other auto glass businesses throughout New Zealand.”
The arrangement raised serious concerns regarding fairness, transparency and the potential for anti-competitive behaviour, Kearns said.
“While we fully support measures to identify and prevent excessive charging within the industry, we believe there is a significant difference between legitimate claims administration and a situation where commercially sensitive information is accessible to parties with direct industry interests.”
A commission spokesperson said the watchdog was not currently investigating AGC, but had received a complaint that was being assessed.
A Vero spokesperson affirmed customers could choose their own repairer.
“However, because bills from non-approved repairers can vary significantly, we use a standard validation process to check that the costs reflect market rates. This helps to keep costs reasonable for everyone.”
A spokesperson for IAG said the insurer worked with a range of auto glass repairers and Auto Glass Claims helped to streamline payment processes and applied controls to maintain consistency in independent repairers.
“Over the past year, less than 11% of windscreen claims were managed through AGC, with the majority of claims continuing to be fulfilled by our approved supplier network.”