Ontario Court Of Appeal Grounds Class Action Jurisdiction Challenges

Companies in Canada or doing business with Canadians beware. The Ontario Court of Appeal has held that Ontario courts can take jurisdiction in class actions over plaintiffs who are not Canadian, do not live or work here, and who have not consented to a Canadian court's jurisdiction (also known as "absent foreign claimants"), even at the risk of the judgment being unenforceable outside Canada. In our view, multinational companies whose businesses have some connection, even a modest one, to Canada are at risk of facing a global class action in Canada.

In Airia Brands Inc v Air Canada (the air cargo class action), the plaintiffs sued several airlines alleging a conspiracy to fix air freight shipping prices. The class included anyone who bought airfreight cargo shipping services to or from Canada between 2000 and 2006. This class definition captured many people who were not present in Canada and had not consented to a Canadian court's jurisdiction (the traditional grounds