Two key financial thresholds relevant to the review of proposed
transactions under Canada's Competition Act (CA) and
Investment Canada Act (ICA) have now been increased for
2018.
On February 9, 2018, the Competition Bureau announced an
increase in the CA's "size-of-transaction"
threshold—one of the two thresholds that together trigger
mandatory notification of a transaction to the Competition
Bureau—from CA$88 million to CA$92 million. This threshold
can be reached on the basis of either the book value of assets in
Canada acquired in a transaction, or by the gross revenues from
sales in or from Canada generated by those assets. Additional
proportional interest thresholds apply for acquisitions of shares,
partnership interests or other forms of ownership, and special
rules apply to amalgamations. Both the size-of-target threshold and
a separate CA$400 million "size of parties" threshold
(which does not change annually) must be surpassed for a
transaction to be
