Major Changes To Competition Law Proposed

Earlier today, Canada's Minister of Finance tabled the weighty Bill C-10, the Budget Implementation Act. Included in this Bill are proposals to significantly amend the Competition Act and the Investment Canada Act. If passed, these amendments would implement the principal recommendations of the government's blue-ribbon Competition Policy Review Panel, which tabled its report in June 2008.

• The proposed amendments to the Competition Act include:
• Repealing the existing criminal conspiracy provisions and replacing them with a per se criminal offence to address hard-core cartels and a civil provision to deal with other types of agreements between competitors that have anti-competitive effects;