Competition Bureau Publishes Final Version Of Revised Canadian MEGs

On October 6, 2011, the Competition Bureau announced the publication of the final version of its revised Merger Enforcement Guidelines (MEGs), only thirteen months after announcing its intention to review the guidelines in September 2010. The revised MEGs replace both the 2004 version of the guidelines and the Bureau's 2009 Efficiencies in Merger Review bulletin.

The revisions aim to better describe the Bureau's analytical approach to merger review by addressing discrete areas where the 2004 MEGs no longer fully reflected Bureau practice or current economic and legal thinking. It is generally understood that the 2010 revisions to the U.S. Horizontal Merger Guidelines (U.S. Guidelines) also constituted an important factor driving the need for review. Whereas the U.S. Guidelines are limited to horizontal mergers, however, the revised MEGs also address vertical merger analysis and go further than the U.S. Guidelines with respect to horizontal merger analysis by