Canadian COMPETITION LAW

A new global competition/antitrust law text that caught my eye is the soon to be published by Kluwer: Landmark Cases in Competition Law: Around the World in Fourteen Stories (forthcoming, January, 2013).  I noticed this upcoming new book based on its unique approach to competition law in key jurisdictions, including Canada: a discussion of one “landmark case, scenario or ‘saga’ from each jurisdiction.”  Evidently a sort of competition law Canterbury Tales.  In addition to Canada, the survey also includes discussions of Australia, Brazil, the EU, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and U.S.

Abstract:

“It is the thesis of this fascinating and highly instructive book on competition law that an examination of one landmark case, scenario, or ‘saga’ each from a range of legal systems leads to a thorough understanding of the issues informing and arising from competition policy, law, and legal practice. To this end, leading scholars from 14 jurisdictions enhance their academic authority and rigour with an element of panache to describe a particularly salient case in each of their countries, commenting in depth on the contribution of the case to the development of their particular competition law culture and to the case’s enduring significance for competition law and its enforcement from a global perspective. There are chapters for each of thirteen countries as well as the European Union, preceded by an informative and thoughtful introduction. For each landmark case selected, the legislative background, the case facts, and the legal ruling and reasoning are all minutely described, along with commentary, critique, and assessment of the case’s impact and contemporary significance. The cases cover vast swathes of the competition law territory in terms of substance and procedure, dealing with cartels, abuse of dominance, mergers, and vertical restraints, and involving diverse forms of public and private enforcement processes.

Aspects covered include the following: the tension between the objective of economic efficiency and that of low prices; the public interest test; bid-rigging in public procurement; entitlement of dominant companies to compete as other firms do; the hard-to-draw line between legitimate competition and unlawful monopolizing conduct; the dangers of eclectic borrowing in the development and interpretation of competition law rules; price-fixing collusion; ‘hub and spoke’ cartels; resale price maintenance agreements and the U.S. ‘rule of reason’; the increasing use of private enforcement and the right for victims of a competition law infringement to seek compensation; merger control in energy markets and the political use of merger review rules to benefit domestic firms; cooperation with criminal enforcement agencies and prosecutors; the role courts play in undertaking adequate legal supervision of competition authorities; leniency processes and obtaining access to ‘confidential’ whistleblowing documentation; imposition of administrative fines and other deterrence-based sanctions; and how the ‘consumer welfare’ standard is interpreted.

More than a set of landmark cases which can be seen as a catalyst for further significant reforms, this book demonstrates that competition law and its enforcement processes form part of a chronological narrative, and that it is important to understand the broader legal, social, and economic context within which competition law and policy develop. This fully worked-out perspective will prove immeasurably valuable to the many practitioners, business people, jurists, and policymakers engaged in the shaping of competition law in any jurisdiction, and will moreover be essential reading for postgraduate students studying any aspects of comparative competition law enforcement.”

For more information and ordering details see: Landmark Cases in Competition Law: Around the World in Fourteen Stories.

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