Competition Bureau Provides New Guidance: No Poach, Wage-Fixing And Other Buy-Side Agreements

The Canadian Competition Bureau (the "Bureau") issued much welcomed guidance on Friday to confirm what many have said to date, namely that no-poaching,¹ wage-fixing² and other buy-side agreements fall outside the scope of the criminal conspiracy provision (section 45) of the Competition Act (the "Act"). This guidance comes in response to significant interest from politicians and the legal and business communities regarding the treatment of these types of agreements in light of the position taken by the US Justice Department's Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (outlined below).

Section 45 of the Act prohibits agreements between competitors to fix prices, allocate markets or limit the supply of a product. Such agreements are per se unlawful (i.e. they are deemed illegal without proof of anticompetitive effects). Violations may be subject to significant fines, imprisonment and private enforcement (including class actions).