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ARTICLE · 20 APRIL 2020

COVID-19 Impact: Competition Bureau Provides Guidance For Competitor Collaborations

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Competitors forming short-term business collaborations that are legitimately aimed at responding to the COVID-19 pandemic will generally not face scrutiny under the Competition Act, the Competition Bureau has announced.

CanadaAntitrust/Competition Law
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP
Christopher Hersh
Christopher Hersh
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Competitors forming short-term business collaborations that are legitimately aimed at responding to the COVID-19 pandemic will generally not face scrutiny under the Competition Act, the Competition Bureau has announced. The Bureau has also created a team to quickly provide specific guidance on proposed COVID-19-related collaborations to businesses seeking greater certainty.

The statement suggests that several factors must be present for a collaboration to benefit from this relaxed enforcement:

  • Public interest: the collaboration must be intended to achieve a clearly identified COVID-19 related objective in the public interest
  • Necessity: the collaboration must be necessary to meet the objective.

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