The Private Competition Enforcement Review 2012 – Canadian Chapter

I OVERVIEW OF RECENT PRIVATE ANTITRUST LITIGATION ACTIVITY

Private antitrust litigation in Canada takes place either in the civil courts of the various provinces of Canada or before the federal Competition Tribunal ('the Tribunal'), depending on the nature of the matter. Most of the litigation activity to date has occurred in the civil courts. Of those cases, most are class proceedings that allege the existence of price-fixing cartels among groups of defendants and seek damages in respect of the 'overcharge' (or inflated price) for the product.

In most of these class proceedings, the alleged price-fixed product is an input into another product (e.g., a microchip) that passes through a chain of distribution to end users or consumers (e.g., a computer). Given the requirement, discussed below, that a plaintiff must have suffered harm to have a private antitrust claim, important questions may arise as to whether direct purchasers of the price-fixed product passed on