The Bulk Sales Act (Ontario) — Repealed

On March 22, 2017, the Burden Reduction Act, 2017 (the "Act"), which, as its name indicates, is part of an initiative to reduce the regulatory burden on Ontario businesses, received Royal Assent and came into force. The Act repeals the Bulk Sales Act (the "BSA"), which was enacted in 1917 and had long been a source of frustration for parties involved in asset sale transactions in Ontario, including the sale of a business by way of asset sale.

The BSA was intended to protect trade creditors from a situation in which a vendor liquidates its assets over a short period of time, leaving its trade creditors unpaid. Compliance with the BSA was an important consideration for both the purchaser and the vendor in an asset sale transaction in Ontario, particularly because non-compliance with the BSA could result in the transaction being declared void by an Ontario court upon application by an affected creditor and causing the purchaser to be liable to account to the creditors