January 1, 2020
Competition law (or “antitrust law” as it is referred to in the United States) generally includes a range of local and federal legislation, case law and enforcement agency policies that restrict in part free markets aimed at preventing or regulating activities that prevent or substantially impact competition. In general, Canadian and international competition/antitrust laws are focused on protecting competition and not individual competitors.
In Canada, like many other major jurisdictions, the federal Competition Act contains a range of provisions that either prohibit certain types of conduct or allow Canadian courts or the Competition Tribunal to issue orders in relation to activities including the following:
1. Criminal conspiracy/cartel agreements between competitors. In Canada, price-fixing, market division/allocation, output restriction and bid-rigging agreements between competitors are per se illegal and subject to criminal fines and/or imprisonment (sections 45 and 47). See: Conspiracy (Cartels) and Bid-Rigging.
2. Some types of non-price vertical restraints in agreements resulting in substantial anti-competitive effects, including exclusive dealing, tied selling, market restrictions, most-favoured-nation (MFN) or meet-or-release clauses, penalties for terminating an agreement or staggered contract renewal clauses (sections 77 and 79). See: Abuse of Dominance, Exclusive Dealing and Tied Selling.
3. Some types of price-related vertical restraints, including price maintenance (section 76). See: Price Maintenance.
4. Unilateral or concerted refusals to deal (sections 45, 75, 76, 79 and 90.1). See: Abuse of Dominance, Conspiracy, Price Maintenance and Refusal to Deal.
5. Abuse of dominance, where a dominant firm (or firms in the case of joint dominance) engages in a practice of anti-competitive acts that prevents or lessens competition substantially (sections 78 and 79). See: Abuse of Dominance.
6. Merger control (the substantive review of proposed mergers and merger filings) (Part IX of the Competition Act – Notifiable Transactions).
In some jurisdictions, like Canada, competition laws also include a range of consumer protection and advertising related laws. Under the Competition Act, advertising and marketing related provisions include the general criminal and civil misleading advertising provisions (sections 52 and 74.01), deceptive telemarketing (section 52.1), deceptive prize notices (section 53), double ticketing (section 54), multi-level marketing plans (section 55), pyramid selling schemes (section 55.1), performance claims (section 74.01(1)(b)), ordinary selling price (OSP) claims (sections 74.01(2) and (3)), testimonials (section 74.02), bait and switch selling (section 74.04), sale above advertised price (section 74.05) and promotional contests (section 74.06).
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We are a Toronto based competition and advertising law firm offering business and individual clients efficient and strategic advice in relation to competition/antitrust, advertising, Internet and new media law and contest law. We also offer competition and regulatory law compliance, education and policy services to companies, trade and professional associations and government agencies.
Our experience includes advising clients in Toronto, Canada and the United States on the application of Canadian competition and regulatory laws and we have worked on hundreds of domestic and cross-border competition, advertising and marketing, promotional contest (sweepstakes), conspiracy (cartel), abuse of dominance, compliance, refusal to deal and pricing and distribution matters. For more information about our competition and advertising law services see: competition law services.
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For more information about our firm, visit our website: Competitionlawyer.ca
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