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ARTICLE · 19 DECEMBER 2014

Competition Act Amendments to Address "Unjustified" Canada-US Price Discrimination

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On December 9, 2014, the Minister of Industry introduced the Price Transparency Act ("Bill C-49") which is aimed at the perceived problem of higher retail prices of some products in Canada as compared to the United States.

CanadaAntitrust/Competition Law
Neil Campbell
Neil Campbell
James Musgrove
James Musgrove
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On December 9, 2014, the Minister of Industry introduced the Price Transparency Act ("Bill C-49") which is aimed at the perceived problem of higher retail prices of some products in Canada as compared to the United States. Bill C-49 will give the Commissioner of Competition (the "Commissioner") new powers to investigate and publicize cross-border price discrimination, but no power to take any enforcement action against it.

The Federal government first signalled a concern about what it calls "unjustified cross-border price discrimination" in its 2013 Speech from the Throne, and again in the Federal budget tabled in February 2014. The original intention was to prohibit geographic price discrimination that is not justified by higher operating costs in Canada. This proposal was widely criticized in the business, legal and policy communities as unworkable and intrusive price regulation (see McMillan's earlier bulletins here and here).

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