Canadian Competition Tribunal Refuses To Apply U.S. Horizontal Merger Guidelines

Summary

On Oct. 31, 2022, the Canadian Competition Tribunal (the Tribunal) issued its decision¹ in the merger litigation in Canada (Commissioner of Competition) v Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited (CT-2019-005).

The Tribunal dismissed the application brought by the Commissioner of Competition (the Commissioner) under section 92 of the Competition Act (the Act), concluding that the Commissioner did not prove that the acquisition of a grain elevator near Virden, Manitoba by Parrish & Heimbecker, Limited (P&H) would lessen competition substantially in the markets for the purchase of wheat and canola in the area around the elevator.

Key to the decision was the Tribunal's refusal to apply an approach to relevant product market definition advanced in the U.S. Horizontal Merger Guidelines that the Commissioner had urged the Tribunal to adopt.