Archive for March, 2010
March 21, 2010
The pre-merger notification provisions of the Competition Act (the “Act”) require both parties to specified types of transactions that exceed the statutory monetary thresholds under the Act to file pre-merger notification filings with the federal Competition Bureau (the “Bureau”).
March 14, 2010
On March 12, 2010, the Canadian Competition Bureau announced the coming into force of Canada’s new two-track conspiracy regime: “The Competition Bureau is pleased to announce that amended provisions of the Competition Act relating to competitor collaborations come into force today.
March 8, 2010
Canada’s new criminal conspiracy rules will come into force Friday March 12, 2010. The changes, which are the final recent Competition Act amendments to come into force, will significantly change the enforcement of criminal cartels in Canada and is expected to also have significant impacts on competition law private actions and class actions. Effective Friday, Canada will have three new criminal conspiracy offences for “hard core” cartel conduct, making bare price fixing, market allocation/division and supply restriction agreements per se illegal – i.e., without the necessity of establishing any anti-competitive effects on a relevant market (or markets). The penalties for contravening the conspiracy provisions will also more than double with fines of up to CDN $25 million and/or imprisonment for up to fourteen years.