February 18, 2014
Earlier today, the Competition Bureau announced Its most recent new competition advocacy initiative, relating to the regulation of the Toronto taxi industry (see: Competition Bureau Provides Submission to City of Toronto’s Taxicab Industry Review). The Bureau also issued a companion Submission by the Commissioner of Competition to the City of Toronto Taxicab Industry Review.
The key recommendations made in the Bureau’s newest competition advocacy initiative include Issuing new taxi licenses in Toronto and amending regulations to allow new cost-savings software applications to pay for motor vehicle transport services.
In September last year, the Bureau first announced a new public consultation for suggestions where it should intervene in regulated markets for increased competition (i.e., where the Bureau does not have direct enforcement powers given the existence of legislation or regulations allowing conduct that might otherwise violate the Competition Act).
The Bureau has now commenced new advocacy initiatives for more competition in Canadian national and local wireless, Internet domain name, retail pharmacy, Ontario beer retailing and taxi markets.
Taxi competition and innovation also seems rather de rigueur at the moment. In this respect, this newest of the Bureau’s competition advocacy initiatives follows several other international taxi/competition related matters in the last several weeks, including similar submissions made by the Irish Competition Authority to the Irish National Transport Authority (see: here), a complaint lodged by the South African National Taxi Council with the South African Competition Commission relating to alleged government subsidies for bus operators (see: here), and a competition tussle between taxis and Uber and other new technology booking competitors down under (see: here).
Clearly, taxi regulation is an area that both competition regulators and operators are focusing on a lot lately, given these four initiatives in four countries in as many weeks.
For more about the Bureau’s ongoing advocacy initiatives, see: Advocacy.
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