The Competition Bureau

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On June 27, 2023, the Competition Bureau  (the “Bureau”)  released its “Retail Grocery Market Study Report” (the “Report”). The Report is the result of the October 24, 2022 announcement by the Bureau that it would conduct a study of grocery store competition in Canada.

The Report observes that grocery prices have been rising and suggests this is in part because Canada’s grocery industry is concentrated and has high entry barriers. The Report concludes that increased competition in the industry is part of the solution. The balance of the Report is devoted to explaining the basis for the Report’s conclusions and exploring and recommending steps for achieving increased competition.Continue Reading “Canada Needs More Competition”: Competition Bureau Releases its Retail Grocery Market Study Report

On June 23, 2022, Bill C-19, also known as the Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No.1 (“BIA”), received royal assent. As discussed in more detail in our previous blog post, the BIA included significant amendments to the Competition Act (the “Act”), including the addition of new criminal cartel provisions prohibiting so-called wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements, which will become effective as of June 23, 2023. More specifically, these provisions will prohibit agreements between unaffiliated employers to either “fix, maintain, decrease or control salaries, wages or terms and conditions of employment” or “not solicit or hire employees”.Continue Reading Competition Bureau Issues Finalized Enforcement Guidelines for Wage-Fixing and No-Poaching Offences:  What You Need To Know

Introduction

Following up from Part 1 of our article on the interaction of between privacy and competition law in the economy, Part 2 surveys how competition law enforcers in the United States, European Union, and Canada have addressed both competition and privacy concerns as it relates to data.

A number of significant mergers have…

On February 11th, the Competition Bureau published its Strategic Vision for 2020-24. Titled “Competition in the Digital Age”, this document outlines how the Bureau plans to deliver the benefits of competition to Canadians over the next four years in today’s rapidly changing digital economy.

The Strategic Vision includes three key themes…

Recent Legal News

On September 12, 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada denied Sobeys Incorporated’s (“Sobeys”) and Metro Incorporated’s (“Metro”) leave to appeal from a judgement of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (“ONSC”) – (“Sobeys v. Commissioner”) – dismissing their applications for disclosure of the identities…

In recent years, competition/antitrust enforcers around the world, including Canada, have taken a marked interest in private equity deals.  As part of a broader global trend of tougher merger enforcement, private equity firms that have taken ownership positions (controlling or minority) in portfolio companies that are competitors have been subject to heightened scrutiny.  The litigation…

Pre-merger exchanges of information can create competition risk. Companies considering mergers or acquisitions legitimately need access to detailed information about the other party’s business in order to negotiate the deal, engage in due diligence and implement the transaction. While non-competitively sensitive can (subject to any commercial concerns) be freely exchanged, care needs to be exercised…

The front half of 2019 has seen a number of important competition law developments in Canada. In addition to a new Commissioner, a different procedural approach to the efficiencies defence in merger review and an increased focus on the digital economy, there have also been a number of consent agreements in the deceptive marketing space…

In recent years, advertisers have increasingly established commercial relationships with online personalities or “influencers”, who market their products through various digital platforms and social media. The prevalence of “influencer marketing” has become an emerging frontier for the regulation of deceptive marketing in Canada and abroad.

Digital Marketing in Canada

In Canada, issues regarding misleading representations…