Canadian Competition Bureau Reviewable Conduct Branch Roundtable

Competition Bureau's Reviewable Practice Branch participated in its first annual roundtable with members of the bar. The Branch wanted to provide information on its current initiatives and anticipated developments.

The Branch enforces the reviewable practices provisions of the Competition Act, the principal aspects of which being the new decriminalized price maintenance provision, the abuse of dominance provisions, the new civil provision dealing with agreements between competitors, the refusal to deal provision, and as well the provisions with respect to tied selling, exclusive dealing and market restriction.

The Branch, like the Competition Bureau as a whole, is primarily a law enforcement agency, and therefore its actions tend to be driven by external events and complaints brought to its attention. In that regard, it receives approximately 900 annual complaints which result, on average, in approximately 15 serious investigations per year. In addition to