Lawyers Baulk At Competition Bureau's Proposed Changes

Proposed changes by Canada's Competition Bureau to the Competition Act have left some lawyers scratching their heads, and in some cases, labelling the recommendations "particularly concerning".

After a spate of court losses, the bureau has proposed more than 50 changes to the law, including "simplifying the test for abuse of dominance and removing its obligation to prove certain conduct was 'purposefully' anticompetitive", as reported by the Global Competition Review.

The announcement by the bureau also repeated its call to overhaul the merger notification and review regime. According to the publication, the bureau recommends a "presumption that a deal is anticompetitive when market shares exceed a certain unspecified threshold. This would require the merging parties to prove that the tie-up is not anticompetitive."