Nine Key Developments In Enforcement Of Non-Criminal Provisions Of The Competition Act

Introduction

At the recent annual conference of the Canadian Bar Association's Competition Law Section, representatives of the Competition Bureau presented their priorities for the coming year and discussed recent developments. Distilled below are the nine key developments in the enforcement of the non-criminal aspects of Canada's Competition Act (Act) and their implications for businesses in Canada and abroad.

General matters

1. The age of "appropriately aggressive enforcement" is here. The commissioner of competition (Commissioner) announced that the Bureau has moved from a period of digesting the significant amendments to the Act made in 2009, to a phase of bringing cases based on the new law, which she called "appropriately aggressive enforcement." Throughout the last year, the Bureau has, among other things, challenged two mergers, pursued several abuse of dominance cases, challenged Visa and MasterCard's pricing practices, and brought several actions for