Significant Changes To Canadian Competition And Foreign Investment Laws Proposed

Earlier today, the Federal government introduced Bill C-10, the Budget Implementation Act, 2009 (the "Bill"). The Bill proposes significant changes to Canada's Competition Act and Investment Canada Act. The Bill's key amendments in this area include:

• Replacing the existing conspiracy provisions in the Competition Act with a per se criminal offence for cartel-like agreements between competitors and a civil offence to deal with other types of agreements between competitors that substantially lessen or prevent competition.
• Amending the current merger notification process to mirror the U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act process and increasing the current merger notification thresholds.