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ARTICLE · 17 FEBRUARY 2014

Collateral Damage: The Supreme Court Clarifies Claims For "Unlawful Interference With Economic Relations"

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
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When the actions of a person directed at your customer, client, supplier, or other person connected to your business, indirectly harms your business, can you recover your losses from that initial person?

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
David Crerar
David Crerar
Hunter Parsons
Hunter Parsons
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When the actions of a person directed at your customer, client, supplier, or other person connected to your business, indirectly harms your business, can you recover your losses from that initial person? The answer depends upon Canadian courts' inconsistent (and often confusing) applications of the tort of "unlawful interference with economic relations".

The potential application of this tort to the world of business is broad. Consider the following situations:

  • ABC Courier provides its services to many clients in a large office tower. The owner of the building strikes an exclusivity deal with a competing courier, and denies ABC access to the building going forward. All of ABC's clients in that building migrate over to the competing courier. Can ABC recover its economic loss from the building owner?

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