Canadian Competition Bureau Unveils Revised Merger Review Process Guidelines And Filing Requirements

The Canadian Competition Bureau recently unveiled draft new Guidelines for The Revised Merger Review Process, as well as a proposed Regulation Amending the Notifiable Transactions Regulations¹. Both documents are in draft form, with comments requested by May 29, 2009 in the case of the draft Guidelines, and by June 3, 2009² in the case of the proposed Regulation. The sudden implementation of a U.S.-style two-stage merger review process on March 12, 2009  left the Bureau rushing to update the filing requirements, not least because the current Regulation speaks of a choice between a short-form and a long-form notification that no longer exists. The Bureau's draft process Guidelines seek to answer questions concerning "supplementary information requests," the equivalent of so-called "second requests" for documents and information in the United States. The issuance of such a request triggers the second stage of merger review and suspends the waiting period while the parties