On October 6, 2011, Canada's Competition Bureau released
newly revised Merger Enforcement Guidelines
("MEGs"). The MEGs set out the analytical framework used
by the Bureau in its review of mergers and acquisitions under
Canada's Competition Act. Of all the Bureau's
various enforcement guidelines, the MEGs are the most used in
practice.
These new MEGs replace the prior 2004 edition. Whereas the 2004
revision involved a considerable rewrite of the original 1991 MEGs,
the new 2011 MEGs are intended to "address certain discrete
areas where the [2004] MEGs do not fully reflect current Bureau
practice and current economic and legal thinking". Given that
there has been no contested merger decision in Canada since the
release of the 2004 MEGs, the latest revision may also be seen as
reflecting the Bureau's desire to keep pace with revisions last
year to the U.S. Horizontal Merger Guidelines and revisions to
guidelines in other jurisdictions.
