Competition Bureau Finalizes Competitor Property Controls Guidance

The Competition Bureau (the Bureau) recently finalized its competitor property controls enforcement guidance (the Guidance) under the Competition Act (the Act)¹, replacing the preliminary guidance it issued last year. Overall, the Guidance maintains the Bureau's strict enforcement approach to property controls set out in the preliminary guidance, but it also provides additional helpful clarification.

What you need to know

• The Bureau takes a skeptical view of property controls and will only consider them to be justified in "limited cases".
• Bureau enforcement can proceed under the abuse of dominance or civil anti-competitive collaboration provisions of the Act, with remedies ranging from prohibition orders to corrective orders (including divestiture) to significant administrative monetary penalties.