Round One: Canada Takes A Big Swing At Its Competition Act, With More To Come

In a budget implementation bill passed into law on June 23, 2022, the Canadian government made significant changes to Canada's Competition Act¹ (Act). Perhaps the most extensive and consequential amendments are those relating to the abuse of dominance provisions. Notably, the government expanded the scope of the abuse of dominance provisions, added a new private right of access for abuse of dominance, and significantly increased administrative monetary penalties for contravention of the provisions.

Changes to the Abuse of Dominance Provisions

Specifically with respect to abuse of dominance, the amendments have broadened the substantive scope of these provisions by expanding the types of actions that can be considered abuse of dominance, and introduced a private right of application for persons (including competitors) that allege they have been harmed by such conduct to bring such cases before the Competition Tribunal (Tribunal). Previously, only the Commissioner