Canadian Competition Tribunal Upholds Challenge To Completed Merger

Last month, the Canadian Competition Tribunal released the public version of its reasons for issuing a divestiture order pursuant to the first fully contested proceeding under the merger provisions of the Competition Act in over a decade.

The Commissioner of Competition challenged the completed acquisition by CCS Corporation of Complete Environmental Inc. The Tribunal ordered divestiture of a subsidiary of Complete that owned property in northeastern British Columbia (known as the Babkirk site) which had been licensed for operation as a secure hazardous waste landfill.

The key implications of this decision for future transactions include:

• Small competitive overlaps may be successfully challenged by the Commissioner – divestiture was ordered notwithstanding a relatively small geographic area of potential competitive overlap between CCS and the Babkirk site, with only 12 customers and a small volume of commerce.