CLE Seminar – Canada’s New Competition & Foreign Investment Law 2010
Steve Szentesi will be chairing and speaking and Tom Hakemi will be speaking at an upcoming Continuing Legal Education BC competition law seminar in the spring – Canada’s New Competition & Foreign Investment Law 2010. This upcoming half day practitioner-oriented seminar, which will be held on March 18th (one week after the last of the amendments come into force), will review the major amendments to Canada’s competition and foreign investment law. The changes include amendments to the merger, criminal conspiracy, abuse of dominance, misleading advertising and criminal pricing provisions of the Competition Act. Also included will be a review of the recent changes to Canada’s Investement Canada Act and adoption of a national security test for foreign investment in Canada. Steve and Tom will be speaking on Canada’s new U.S. style two-track criminal conspiracy regime and impacts on Canadian and international companies, trade associations and private competition law actions and class actions in Canada.
Recent & Upcoming Publications
- Contribution to a submission to the Indian government on merger control in India (Derek Ireland author) (2010)
- “Convergence and Canada’s New Merger Control Regime”, paper presented at joint WCCG and IAL Conference, Delhi, India (2009)
- “Competition Law & Trade Associations”, Boardwalk newsletter (December, 2009)
- “Canada’s Competition Act Amendments”, the Advocate (spring 2010)
- “Competition Act Amendments Impact Trade Associations”, Lawyers Weekly (January, 2010)
- Competition Law & REALTORS, Aliance for Canadian Real Estate Education compliance book (spring 2010)
Canada’s New Criminal Conspiracy Rules
On March 12, 2010 new criminal conspiracy rules will come into force that are the most significant changes to Canada’s cartel rules in a hundred years. This update highlights the new rules, impacts on Canadian and international companies, trade associations and competition law private civil actions.
The changes to Canada’s conspiracy rules will be the most significant in a century. Some of the changes include the adoption of a “two-track” conspiracy regime (with a criminal track for “hard core” agreements – i.e., price fixing, market allocation and output restriction agreements) and separate civil track for non-hard core agreements that prevent or lessen competition substantially.
The penalties for contravening the new criminal conspiracy rules will also be substantially increased with fines of up to $25 million and/or imprisonment for up to 14 years (increased from $10 million and 5 years).
Some of the key impacts include: (i) increasing the importance for trade associations and companies to review existing or adopt new competition law compliance programs, (ii) substantially increasing the risk associated with “hard core” cartel agreements based on the lower legal burden and significantly higher penalties, (iii) the introduction of a U.S.-style ancillary restraints defence, which will be relevant for the preparation and review of some types of agreements (e.g., joint venture agreements), (iv) altering the review of many types of common commercial agreements between competitors and potential competitors (e.g., franchise, joint venture, licence and dual distribution agreements) and (v) increasing the importance of reviewing and controlling information exchanges with competitors (i.e., exchanges of competitively sensitive information).
Impacts on Private Actions
The upcoming changes are also expected to lead to an increased number of private civil actions (and potentially competition law class actions) as a result of the lower bar to establish criminal price fixing, market allocation and output restriction agreements.
Other Recent Amendments
The impending changes to Canada’s criminal conspiracy rules are part of recent sweeping amendments to Canada’s Competition Act. Some of the other key changes include: (i) a two-track U.S.-style merger notification regime, (ii) increased penalties for failure to comply with the merger notification provisions, (iii) increased penalties for misleading advertising up to $10 million for corporations, (iv) penalties for abuse of dominance up to $10 million, (v) amendments to the Investment Canada Act and (vi) adoption of a national security test for foreign investments.
____________________
For more information about our regulatory law services contact us: contact
OUR BOOKS
The Competition Law Guide for Trade Associations in Canada is a practical and concise summary of Canadian competition law for trade, professional and other associations and their advisors
OUR COURSES
Competition Law and REALTORS®: What You Say and Do Matters was designed by ACRE with the assistance of CREA to help Canadian REALTORS® understand and comply with Canadian competition law
For more see: ACRE