Archive for the 'Competition and IP' Category
August 17, 2025
On August 14, 2025, Canada’s federal Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced that it had issued new guidance for companies and others to develop competition law compliance programs (see: “Develop a compliance program for your business in 10 easy steps!”).
In general, the Bureau has published on its Compliance Bootcamp web page videos describing competition law compliance programs, its recommended ten steps to develop a credible and effective compliance program and recommendations to comply with many of the core criminal and civil provisions of the Competition Act including abuse of dominance (sections 78 and 79), bid-rigging (section 47), deceptive marketing (under Parts VI and VII.1), exclusive dealing / tied selling / market restriction (section 77), mergers (Parts VIII and IX), price-fixing (section 45), refusal to deal (section 75), price maintenance (section 76) and wage-fixing and no-poaching agreements (section 45(1.1)).
June 20, 2024
On June 20, 2024, Bill C-59 was passed, introducing the second of two recent significant rounds of amendments to Canada’s federal Competition Act (the first round introduced by Bill C-56).
This new round of amendments to the Competition Act completes a sweeping overhaul of Canada’s Competition Act across virtually all key provisions of Canada’s competition legislation. These amendments are also the most significant changes to Canadian competition law since the modern Competition Act came into effect in 1986 replacing the former Combines Investigation Act.
December 16, 2023
On December 15, 2023, Bill C-56 (An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act), which introduced the first of two significant new rounds of amendments to the federal Competition Act, largely came into force.
June 24, 2023
On June 21, 2023, Canada’s federal Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced that Canada Bread had been sentenced by the Ontario Superior Court to a CDN $50 million fine after pleading guilty to fixing wholesale bread prices in Canada.
This recent Canadian criminal price-fixing fine is the highest price-fixing fine imposed by a Canadian court to date. For more information, see: Canada Bread sentenced to $50 million fine after pleading guilty to fixing wholesale bread prices (June 21, 2023). For more information about criminal price-fixing under the Competition Act in Canada, see: Conspiracy (Cartels).
May 3, 2023
On May 2, 2023, Canada’s Globe and Mail published an opinion by Canada’s Commissioner of Competition (Commissioner), Matthew Boswell, arguing that key Canadian consumer markets are highly concentrated and urging for another new round of Competition Act reform.
In this regard, in general, the Commissioner argues that Canada has had a long history of concentration and monopolization in key sectors, including transportation, telecom and banking, and that legislative reform has for the most part resisted increasing competition.
March 28, 2023
Practical Law Canada Competition, of which I am Lawyer Editor, has published a new Legal Update that discusses the Competition Bureau’s submission to the Canadian government in response to the government’s public consultation on amendments to the Competition Act.
Below is an excerpt with a link to the full Legal Update.
May 17, 2022
We are pleased to be presenting a CASL (Canadian anti-spam law) compliance program for the Retail Council of Canada and its members on May 19, 2022.
February 11, 2022
On February 8, 2022, Canada’s Competition Bureau released a submission entitled Examining the Canadian Competition Act in the Digital Era in response to Senator Howard Wetston’s invitation to comment on Canada’s competition policy framework.
The Bureau’s submission includes sweeping recommendations to amend many of the core provisions of the Competition Act, including its purpose (section 1.1) and its abuse of dominance (sections 78 and 79), civil agreements (section 90.1), conspiracy (cartels) (section 45), bid-rigging (section 47) and criminal and civil deceptive marketing (section 52 and 74.01) provisions. The last major legislative overhaul of Canada’s Competition Act was in 2009 (see: Amendments).
Templates/precedents and checklists to run promotional contests in Canada
Templates/precedents and checklists to comply with Canadian anti-spam law (CASL)
