Originally published 2 March 2006
The Canadian Competition Bureau is now looking at responses to its recent draft technical bulletin on the regulated conduct defence.
With the trend in many jurisdictions towards continued deregulation and the development or strengthening of competition laws, the appropriate scope for competition law immunity accorded to regulated conduct has come up for renewed debate. The importance and multijurisdictional nature of this debate is reflected, for example, in studies conducted by the OECD and, more recently, the International Competition Network into the limits and constraints on antitrust enforcement in regulated sectors.
The interface between competition law and regulation in Canada is governed by what is known as the regulated conduct defence (RCD). The RCD is a common law doctrine that provides a form of immunity from enforcement action under the Competition Act (the Act) to persons engaged in conduct that is directed or authorised by other
