On June 17, 2019 the Competition Bureau announced that it is challenging Thoma Bravo’s acquisition of Aucerna, a company that offers valuation and reporting software to Canadian oil and gas producers.

The fact that the Competition Bureau is challenging the transaction after it has been completed suggests that the transaction was not subject to pre-merger

On September 29, 2016, the Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) released a revised consent agreement template for merger remedy negotiations. The release of the Bureau’s updated template is timely, as the number of consent agreements registered with the Competition Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) have risen significantly since the last template was published in 2007.

This year alone,

On September 9, 2016, the Quebec Court of Appeal (“QCCA”) issued its judgment in two gasoline price-fixing conspiracy cases. The cases were the product of the Competition Bureau’s (the “Bureau”) year-long investigation into the fixing of retail gasoline prices in the province of Quebec from April 2005 to May 2006.

The three accused individuals in the cases (Yves Gosselin, Linda Proulx, and Michel Lagrandeur) were charged under the Competition Act’s (the “Act”) former price-fixing provisions for conspiring to fix retail gasoline prices in the cities of Magog and Sherbrooke. All three accused were subsequently convicted at trial. The trial judge arrived at his decision based on the preponderance of evidence adduced during the trial, which included, among other things, hundreds of intercepted telephone conversations, which included statements by co-conspirators.Continue Reading New Trial Ordered: Application of Co-Conspirators’ Exception to the Hearsay Rule at Issue in Price-Fixing Conspiracy Case

The Competition Bureau Continues to Make History in its Enforcement of the Criminal Conspiracy Provisions of the Competition Act

For the second time in as many months, the Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”) has made an historic announcement about its efforts to enforce the criminal conspiracy provisions of the Competition Act (the “Act”).

On July 20,

The Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced yesterday that the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) has entered a stay of proceedings against 4 key targets, in one of the Bureau’s most labour-intensive, criminal investigations to date. Indeed, following the Bureau’s 6-year investigation of alleged price-fixing in the chocolate confectionary industry, criminal proceedings against ITWAL Ltd., Mars